.
LOVE, PEACE, AND JOY
A MONTH OF THE SACRED HEART
ACCORDING TO
ST. GERTRUDE
FROM THE FRENCH OF THE VERY REV. ANDRE"
PREVOT, OF THE SOCIETY OF THE PRIESTS
OF THE HEART OF JESUS
A BENEDICTINE OF PRINCETHORPE
PRIORY
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO
BENZIGER BROTHERS
PUBLISHERS OF BENZIGER'S MAGAZINE
|lihU ©bate*.
HENRICUS S. BOWDEN,
CENSOR DEPUTATUS.
Imprimatur.
EDM. CAN. SURMONT,
VICARIUS GENERALIS.
WBSTMONASTERII,
Die 7 Decembris, 1911.
PREFACE
WHAT is our intention in publishing this
modest work, dedicated to St. Gertrude
and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus ?
1. To help souls — and already a certain num
ber have made use of our manuscript with
encouraging results. To help others to see and
taste, with greater relish, how good is the Heart
of Jesus, in order that willing souls, feeling the
solicitations of His infinite tenderness, may
resolve to respond fully to the earnest desire
He has to love them and be loved in return, so
that, without fear or reserve, they may lovingly
abandon themselves to Him for ever.
2. We wish to imprint on the hearts of our
readers one of those words of Gertrude to which
Our Lord has promised to attach an especial
grace, and which, filling their souls with a sweet
unction, may become a source of spiritual
riches for life. We wish to win for our dear
Lord also a greater number of followers who,
like St. Gertrude, would respond to His friend
ship by their confidence and fidelity ; who to
console Him, as she did, would take His Divine
interests to heart, seek only to please Him, to
iv Preface
atone to Him for the world's ingratitude, and
by prayer and sacrifice try to pour balm on the
wounds He receives.
Finally, we desire, as far as our inability will
allow, to procure for the Church of Jesus Christ
an increased number of defenders, who by their
devotedness to a life of intercession, love, and
atonement, will help this Holy Mother to obtain
mercy for poor sinners, to repair the unceasing
losses of her children, and deaden the terrible
concert of blasphemy and impiety by their
tributes of praise and of love.
And to whom do we offer this little work ?
To all the friends of the Heart of Jesus, who in
cordial charity ever rejoice in what may con
tribute to make that adorable Heart better
known and better loved.
To the friends of St. Gertrude, whose number
is ever on the increase in the Church of God ; to
those who rejoice in seeing the wish of the
learned and pious Father Faber accomplished
in her regard :
" Would that she could be in the Church once
more as she was in ages past, the doctress and
the prophetess of the interior life " (" All for
Jesus," chap, viii., p. 324).
To those who believe in the promises of Our
Lord to this soul so privileged by His Sacred
Heart, and who have already, more than once,
sweetly experienced in these writings a light
and an unction not found elsewhere.
In fine we offer it most especially to those
Preface v
souls (whose number is daily increasing) who,
docile to the guidance by which the Holy Spirit
leads the Church at the present time, lovingly
devote themselves to the Work of Reparation.
We wish to offer them, in the pious practices
and holy dispositions with which the Heart of
Jesus inspired St. Gertrude, an easy means of
realizing in their lives that work which has
become the most necessary and the most urgent
of all*
We have divided this little treatise into thirty
lectures, so that it may be used as a devotion
for the Month of the Sacred Heart.
We hope that under this form it will every
where meet with a more ready acceptance, and
may with God's grace especially suit all the
clients of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and all
those souls who in the world, the cloister, or the
sanctuary, devote themselves to the work of
reparation. Grateful shall we be to God if, by
the intercession of St. Gertrude and the mercy
of the Heart of Jesus, we are able to obtain for
this dear Saint the fulfilment of her desires, and
* We venture to offer it (among others) to the peni
tent Associates of the Heart of Jesus, in whose ranks
we ourselves desire to combat faithfully. We recog
nize, with them, the great necessity lor penance in the
work of reparation. But this necessity does not, in
the slightest degree, diminish the need of atonement
made by religious acts, which should accompany
penance properly so-called, and all acknowledge that
penance ought to be animated by love, thanksgiving,
and joy. In this work we aim principally at the last
two dispositions — viz., thanksgiving and joy — which
are the effect and result of love.
vi Preface
assist in consoling our good Master, and con
tributing to the welfare of our Mother, the
Church.
Oh, sweet and loving Saint, who desirest so
earnestly that thy writings may more and more
serve to glorify the Heart of Jesus, and unceas
ingly elicit acts of thanksgiving for the favours
He has bestowed on thee, deign to pour abun
dant blessings on these pages (which are thine),
in order that they, may excite souls to praise
the goodness of the Heart of Jesus, and give
themselves to Him !
Since He has promised to grant to those who
thank Him for the graces lavished on thee,
whatever they may ask, obtain that, in return
for the sentiments of gratitude and admiration
these pages may awaken in our hearts, He may
grant us to love Him and devote ourselves to
Him like thee in peace and in joy.*
* In this work, to which we ask Our Lord to impart
a grace of peace and joy for every soul of good will, we
would deeply regret troubling the peace of any. Should
a reader feel alarmed at expressions of St. Gertrude, or
at the reflections we have added, we beg him to take
such expressions, etc., in the sense indicated in our
notes, especially pp. 49, 56, 70, 120, 122, 173.
We feel a sweet confidence that, by so doing, all will
turn to the greater good of the friends of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE - - iii
THE EVE : INVITATION OF THE HEART OF JESUS - I
FIRST DAY : LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS - 7
SECOND DAY : THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF DEVOTION
TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS TO DRAW
ALL HEARTS TO THE LOVE OF OUR LORD - 15
THIRD DAY : THE INWARD LIFE OF THE HEART OF
JESUS - 2O
FOURTH DAY : DESIRES OF THE HEART OF JESUS - 26
FIFTH DAY : DESIRES OF THE HEART OF JESUS
— continued - - 30
SIXTH DAY : FIRST-FRUIT OF DEVOTION TO THE
HEART OF JESUS ; THE HEART OF JESUS GIVES
LIFE TO ALL OUR ACTIONS - 36
SEVENTH DAY : SECOND FRUIT OF DEVOTION TO
THE SACRED HEART. THE HEART OF JESUS
MAKES ATONEMENT FOR US - - 46
EIGHTH DAY : THE EASY WAYS OF DIVINE ,LOVE
THROUGH DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART,
AS UNDERSTOOD BY ST. GERTRUDE - 54
NINTH DAY : THE EASY WAYS OF DIVINE LOVE
THROUGH DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART,
AS UNDERSTOOD BY ST. GERTRUDE COH-
tinued
59
TENTH DAY : LIFE OF FRIENDSHIP WITH THE
HEART OF JESUS ACCORDING TO THE TEACH
ING OF ST. GERTRUDE - 63
ELEVENTH DAY : LIFE OF TRUSTFUL ABANDONMENT
TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS - - 69
TWELFTH DAY : LIFE OF TRUSTFUL ABANDONMENT
TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS — Continued - 76
viii Contents
PAGE
THIRTEENTH DAY : THE LIFE OF WORSHIP IN THE
SACRED HEART OF JESUS - 82
FOURTEENTH DAY : LIFE OF ADORATION continued QO
FIFTEENTH DAY : LIFE OF THANKSGIVING 97
SIXTEENTH DAY : LIFE OF REPARATION - IO6
SEVENTEENTH DAY : LIFE OF REPARATION COH-
tinued 114
EIGHTEENTH DAY : THE CONSOLER OF THE HEART
OF JESUS, ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE - IIQ
NINETEENTH DAY : THE CONSOLER OF THE HEART
OF JESUS — continued 125
TWENTIETH DAY : THE VICTIM OF THE HEART OF
JESUS, ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE I2Q
TWENTY-FIRST DAY : THE VICTIM OF DESIRES 135
TWENTY-SECOND DAY : THE VICTIM OF DESIRES
continued - - 142
TWENTY-THIRD DAY I THE VICTIM OF PRAISE OF
THE HEART OF JESUS - 149
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY : THE UNIVERSAL AND PER
PETUAL VICTIM OF THE HEART OF JESUS,
ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE - 156
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY : THE LIFE OF JOY IN THE
HEART OF JESUS, ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE 163
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY : FRIENDSHIP WITH THE
SAINTS IN THE HEART OF JESUS - 17!
TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY : FRIENDSHIP WITH THE
SAINTS IN THE HEART OF JESUS continued - Ijg
TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY : MY YOKE IS SWEET AND
MY BURDEN LIGHT - 185
TWENTY-NINTH DAY : OUR LADY OF THE SACRED
HEART - 190
THIRTIETH DAY : OUR LADY OF THE SACRED
HEART — continued - • 195
LITANY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS - 2OI
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART - 2O2
PRAYER OF M. OLIER - - 2O3
LOVE, PEACE, AND JOY
THE EVE
INVITATION OF THE HEART OF JESUS*
I
THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART IS THE
LAST EFFORT IN THESE LATTER AGES OF
THE LOVE OF OUR LORD FOR MEN
ONE day, when St. John, the well-beloved
Apostle of the Heart of Jesus, appeared to
St. Gertrude in the splendour of an incomparable
glory, " My most amiable Lord," said she to
Jesus Christ, " whence cometh it that Thou dost
present Thy most dear disciple to me — me, an
unworthy creature?" "I wish" replied Jesus,
" to establish between him and thee an intimate
friendship ; he shall be thy Apostle, to instruct and
to correct thee."
Then St. John, addressing himself to Gertrude,
said : " Come, Spouse of my Master, together let
us lay our heads on the most tender bosom of the
Lord, in which all the treasures of Heaven and
earth are enclosed" As the head of Gertrude
inclined to the right, and the head of John to
* The fifth chapter being very long, we ventured
to divide it, and thus have been able to place the
first meditation on the Eve, instead of on the first day
i
2 Love, Peace, and Joy
the left of the breast of Jesus, the well-beloved
disciple continued : " Here is the Saint of Saints ;
all good things of earth and Heaven are drawn
hither as to their centre."
Meanwhile the beatings of the Heart of Jesus
ravished the soul of Gertrude : " Well beloved of
the Lord," she asked of St. John, " did these
harmonious beatings, which rejoice my soul, also
rejoice yours when you reposed during the Last
Supper on the bosom of the Saviour ?" ' Yes, I
heard them, and my soul was penetrated with their
sweetness even to its very centre." " How comes
it, then, that in your gospel you have spoken so
little of the loving secrets of the Heart of Jesus
Christ?" "My ministry" answered the be
loved Apostle, " in those early times of the Church
was confined to speaking of the Divine Word, the
eternal Son of the Father, some words of deep
meaning upon which human intelligence might
meditate for ever, without ever exhausting their
riches ; but to these latter times was reserved the
grace of hearing the eloquent voice of the Heart of
Jesus. At this voice the time-worn world will
renew its youth, be roused from its lethargy, and
again be inflamed with the warmth of Divine love*
CONSIDERATION. — St. Gertrude has been, in a
certain sense, the Evangelist of the Sacred
Heart. Her book reveals to us the human
Heart of Jesus, as the Gospel of St. John reveals
to us the Divine Word. This loving revelation
was a secret reserved for these latter ages of the
world, when, after so much ruin and desolation,
weak and disheartened souls are everywhere on
the look out for a final triumph of the Church —
an age of consolation, when faith will be renewed,
* "Revelations of St. Gertrude," as translated by
the Benedictine Fathers of Solesmes.
The Eve 3
piety will flourish, and charity again be re-
enkindled. This is what the Apostle St. John
seems to predict in his Apocalypse when he
says, in a remarkable passage which has been
quoted as applicable to our times : " / have
given before ihee a door opened, which no man
can shut, because thou hast a little strength "
(Apoc. iii. 8).
We are weak, but by the Heart of Jesus we
shall become strong ; by the charity of the
Heart of Jesus we shall triumph over death and
hell, and in the Heart of Jesus, which is open^ we
shall find love, which is the source of all virtues,
The Heart of Jesus is a furnace of love ;
devotion to that Sacred Heart is a devotion
which springs from love, takes love for its end,
and makes use of love as its means. Love is, as
it were, brought home to us by the human
Heart of Jesus, Who communicates to us His
own sentiments in permitting us, as His mem
bers, to feel the vibration of His own hidden
pulsations, according to the great principle
which regulates Christian life : " Hoc sentite in
vobis quod et in Christo Jesu " — Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus
(Phil. ii. 5). It is love which draws us to love
by its own irresistible charms, according to Our
Lord's own prophecy : " /, if I be lifted up from
the earth " (and My Heart has been opened by
love) will draw all things (all hearts) to Myselj
(John xii. 32). In fine, it is love which would
consume us in its flames in order to sanctify
our sacrifices and atone for the faults of this
sinful world, to the end that pardon may
become the measure of love, even as love has
been the measure of pardon. " Many sins* are
forgiven her, because she has loved much " — •
4 Love, Peace, and Joy
Remittuntur ei peccata multa, quoniam dilexit
multum (Luke vii. 47).
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Confidence in
the midst of our trials and the evils of the present
time, because Jesus, having pity on our weak
ness, has opened to us His Heart, where we shall
find strength in all our needs.
2. Love ! love ! Let us give ourselves to
love ! Devotion to the Sacred Heart is the
devotion of love, which alone can banish the
coldness of our times. The renewal which we
seek is a work of love, and can be accomplished
by love alone.
II
DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS,
AND THE BOOK OF ST. GERTRUDE
St. Gertrude hesitated in her humility to
fublish the revelations of the Sacred Heart of
esus, but He overcame her difficulty by saying
to her : "I wish your writings to be for later
times a proof of the tenderness of My Heart, and
I will make them a source of grace to many souls.
While you write, I will keep your heart near to
My Heart, and will instil into it, drop by drop,
what you are to say."
She heard Jesus Himself say the following
prayer : " 0 Ploly Father, I wish, for your eternal
glory, that the heart of Gertrude may pour forth
upon men the treasures which are contained in
My human Heart"
When the book was finished, Jesus appeared
to St. Gertrude, saying : " This book is Mine ; I
have imprinted it in the depths of My Heart ;
there each of its letters has imbibed the sweetness
The Eve 5
of My love, and from every word exhales the
perfume of My mercy."*
St. Gertrude is the Messenger, f the Herald of
Divine love, charged to make love known in its
most touching manifestation, which is the Heart
of Jesus, and to lead to that Divine Heart the
hearts of all men. This is the mission which
St. John announced to her, the mission which
the Heart of Jesus has given her, the mission
for which she has written her book.! She
already sees this task partially accomplished
in an exterior and official manner by the Blessed
Margaret Mary, daughter of St. Francis of
Sales, who was himself the spiritual son of St.
Gertrude, and imbibed much of his own spiritu
ality from her works ; but now she seems called
* Jesus dealt in the same way with the book written
by St. Mechtilde : " All that is written in this book
came from My Divine Heart, and thither will return.
All those who seek Me faithfully will find in it a source of
joy. Those who love Me will become more inflamed with
My love, and those who are in sorrow will here find
consolation."
Our Lord had given His Heart to St. Mechtilde in a
very special manner. This gift excited in her an ardent
devotion to that Sacred Heart, and was for her the
source of all other gifts. She often said : " // all the
blessings I have received from the benign Heart of God had
to be written, a book large as one containing our Matins
would not suffice for them all."
f " Legatus Divinae Pietatis." This is the title which
Our Lord Himself has given to St. Gertrude's book.
J The Benedictine Fathers of Solesmes consider that
the mission of St. Gertrude has truly for its object
devotion to the Sacred Heart in the sense we indicate.
They do not separate her and St. Mechtilde. Indeed,
it may be said that St. Mechtilde 's book passed through
the heart and pen of St. Gertrude, who revised at least
a great part of it, obtained Our Lord's approval of it,
and circulated it among her acquaintances. It there
fore really belongs to the school of St. Gertrude.
6 Love, Peace, and Joy
upon to fulfil her mission still more completely
by means of her new spiritual sons, who every
where propagate her doctrine.*
It is, above all, in the school of St. Gertrude
and in all her teachings that devotion to the
Sacred Heart shows itself easy and suitable to
all, full of sweetness in its form, touching and
irresistible in its attractions, because she every
where points to love, with the joy and peace
which are its fruits.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Let us listen
with confidence and docility to the " Messenger "
of Divine love, and we shall draw from her words
the grace which the Heart of Jesus has deigned
to attach to them — viz., the grace of love.
2. Let us resolve faithfully to imitate St.
Gertrude in what she has done for the Heart of
Jesus, for she frequently repeats that by this
means we shall obtain as recompense the same
favours that she herself received.
* The mission of the Blessed Margaret Mary seems
rather to have for its object the exterior and official
worship of the Sacred Heart, while that of St. Gertrude
aims more at its interior and mystical character. St.
Gertrude brings before us the mysteries of the Sacred
Heart in a more complete and practical manner ; she
also gives a more attractive and encouraging form to
devotion to the Sacred Heart (see Preface of the
Benedictine Fathers).
If we may be allowed to add our own impression to
this, we would say that, with regard to the life of love
and of sacrifice, which ought to be that of every devoted
client of the Heart of Jesus, the two Saints are in
perfect accordance ; but if the Blessed Margaret Mary
is the stronger exponent of sacrifice, St. Gertrude knows
better how to communicate that love which nerves us
to accept it.
FIRST DAY
LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS
I
LOVE THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED
HEART
WE have already heard Jesus say to St.
Gertrude : " It is the love of My Heart
which has inspired your writings ; I wish them
to be for later ages the evidence of My love, to
draw souls to My Heart." On one occasion the
Sisters were making the adoration of the Cross
on Good Friday ; when the moment came for
St. Mechtilde to kiss the crucifix, as she pressed
her lips on the wound of the Heart, Our Lord
said to her : " In this wound of love, so great that
it embraces Heaven and earth, and all that they
contain, unite thy love to My Divine love, that
thus it may become perfect ; and even as iron
glowing with fire becomes, as it were, one with it.
so let your love be transformed and absorbed in
Mine."
Another day she saw Our Lord opening the
wound of His loving Heart, and saying to her :
" See the immensity of My love : measure it by
those words which I addressed to My brethren : ' As
My Father hath loved Me, I also have loved
you'" (John xv. 9). "Hast thou ever heard
7
8 Love, Peace, and Joy
words which express a stronger or more tender
love ?"
CONSIDERATION. — The source of devotion to
the Sacred Heart is love— that is to say, the
Heart of Jesus would give us this devotion as a
last effort of His love, and the most perfect
gift He can bestow. It is love which desires to
give itself without reserve, even to the end of
time, to the ends of the earth, to the utmost
limits of its affection; love which seeks to
warm the world, where charity is now so cold ;
love which has come to bring fire on earth, and
desires at the end of time to consume it entirely
in its flames ; love which aims more at loving
than at being loved, for that is the law of love.
Jesus would once more tell His ungrateful
creatures how much He loves them, would press
them to His Heart, remind them of all He has
done for them, and again try to touch their
hearts and to save them. He asks, of course,
for a return of love, and bitter indeed is the
plaint of disregarded love ; but at least He will
have done all that is in Him, and if He is not
loved by all, all at least will have shared in His
affection. Behold, then, why Our dear Lord
wishes the devotion to the Sacred Heart to
spread now throughout the world. Exterior
signs of it are already everywhere visible —
pictures, statues of the Sacred Heart, solemn
festivals celebrated, and pious practices adopted
in its honour ; but this is not enough : love must
penetrate still more deeply, and enkindle its
flames in the very depths of our hearts. " Ignem
veni mittere in terram " — / have come to cast fire
on the earth (Luke xii. 49). The love of Jesus
must transform us into Himself, even as fire
transforms iron into its own nature, that so He
First Day 9
may offer to His Heavenly Father souls — victims
in one holocaust with Himself.
In former days victims had to be consumed
by fire in order that they might rise to Heaven
as an odour of sweetness ; in like manner the
Church must also be consumed by the fire of
love, that as a pure victim immolated with
Jesus she may rise to Heaven when her sacrifice
is accomplished.
Yes, Our Lord would make our souls so many
victims of love, consumed with Him by those
flames of love which issue from His Divine
Heart, in order that love may obtain pardon
for our age which no longer loves ; that the love
of our hearts may gradually gain the souls of
our brethren, and make them love with us ; that
love may consume our sacrifice, and render us
worthy in Heaven of that supreme good, the
centre towards which the flames of love must
necessarily ascend.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION — i. Love and Sacri
fice. — They must never be separated. Love is
a flame which requires a victim, and sacrifice is
only consumed in the flames of love. Oh, may
we be this victim, and immolate ourselves in
this sacrifice ! For love is God Himself ; sacri
fice makes us holy, makes us Godlike. A
victim consumed is a soul united to God, lost
in God, transformed in God.
2. Always Confidence. — What have we to
fear ? It is love that calls us ; love that gives
all, provides all, will accomplish all ; love that
can wish only what is good for us. Impossible,
then, to respond to love otherwise than by
confidence. And since it is boundless love that
invites us, let us respond also by a boundless
confidence.
io Love, Peace, and Joy
II
THE OBJECT OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART
IS THE LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS,
ESPECIALLY IN HIS PASSION AND IN THE
HOLY EUCHARIST
The love of the Heart of Jesus revealed itself
to St. Gertrude principally in the mysteries of
the Passion and of the Holy Eucharist.
One day, as St. Gertrude affectionately held
and kissed her crucifix, Our Lord said to her :
" Each time that a man does so, or merely looks
upon a crucifix with devotion, the mercy of God
looks down upon his soul. He ought then to
think in his heart that these tender words are
addressed to him : ' Behold how for thy love I have
willed to be attached to a cross, naked, disfigured,
covered with wounds, and with all My members
violently distended. My heart is so passionately
enamoured of thee that, were it necessary in order
to save thee, I would again willingly endure, for
thee alone, all that I have suffered for the sal
vation of the whole world.' "
Jesus then revealed to St. Gertrude the love
of His Divine Heart in the Holy Eucharist :
" My delights are to be with the children of men.
To satisfy My love I have instituted this sacra
ment. I have obliged Myself to remain therein
even to the end of the world, and I wish it to be
frequently received. Should anyone deter a soul
from Communion, he would impede the delight of
My Heart. I have done My utmost to manifest
the tenderness of My Heart in the Blessed
Eucharist. When, impelled by the vehemence of
My love, I enter a soul by Communion, I fill it
First Day n
with graces, and all the inhabitants of Heaven and
earth, and all the souls in Purgatory, experience
at the same moment some new effect of My
bounty.1'
CONSIDERATIONS. — The express object of
devotion to the Sacred Heart is the love of Our
Divine Lord, manifested principally in His
Passion and in the Holy Eucharist. Such is
the object, spiritual and at the same time
material, which is proposed to our love : "Inspice
et fac secundum exemplar " — Look and make
according to the pattern that was shown thee
(Exod. xxv. 40). Look, for it is the object
most worthy of your attention. May your
heart, won by its attractions, be fixed on it for
ever ! May it so absorb your mind that you
know nought but it and the lesson of love which
it gives you ! May it so engrave itself in your
memory that you may have it always present
to your recollection ! So imprint itself in your
imagination as to purify and sanctify it ! So
penetrate ah1 the powers of your soul that they
may be directed according to the law of love !
Look, for it watches over you with so much
tenderness and mercy ! Jesus has willed to be
lifted on high in order to attract the eyes of all !
Gaze at Him, for in doing so you will be healed
of your wounds, as were formerly the Israelites
when they looked at the brazen serpent ! Look,
for He is our Light, our Master, and our Guide
in the ways of salvation !
" Et fac secundum." Do as He did. Love,
feel, and live as He did, for He is the Model
proposed by God the Father to the elect. He
is the Wisdom of God Himself, manifested to
the world for its instruction ; the Strength of
God, displayed for its salvation ; the Divine
12 Love, Peace, and Joy
Head to Whom we must remain united, and on
Whom we must always depend.
But what has He done ? What lesson has
He given us ? what example has He offered for
our imitation ? He has loved us, and given
Himself for us. The love of the Heart of Jesus
is no sterile affection. It is a love that shows
itself by the sacrifice of the Passion, which is
continued and is applied to each one of us in the
sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist. " Dilexit me et
tradidit se." He has loved me, has given Him
self, sacrificed Himself for me. He has loved
me. He loves me still, and will always love me.
He continues and will always continue to give
Himself, to sacrifice Himself for me. That is
love ! that is the Heart of Jesus !
Truly, then, like the Apostle, urged by the
charity of the Heart of Jesus, I would henceforth
see but one object, know but one science — Jesus
crucified. I would hide myself for ever in that
Heart of Jesus which was opened for me on
the Cross ; would give and sacrifice myself
with Him for God, and for my brethren, and
consume myself for ever in the flames of His
love.
Oh yes, Lord, may it be ever so ! O love,
make no delay ! Do quickly what Thou dost !
Plunge me with Thyself in the Heart of Jesus
crucified, in order that my poor nature may be
consumed in its flames, and my life may become
pure and holy with Thee !
Plunge me in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus,
that my sacrifice, like His, may be perpetual,
and that I may ever be in union with Him, a
victim of worship, of praise, and of love.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Let us often look
at the crucifix, but let us look at it with love.
First Day 13
Let our gaze mount to the Heart of Jesus, to
wound it with a wound of love, and thereby
heal the wound that sin has made therein.
And in return His eyes, so full of mercy^
will look upon us and still more inflame our
love.
Let us look, and imagine we see inscribed
around that crucifix those words of love :
" Dilexit me et tradidit se " — He loved me, and
delivered Himself for me. Yes, for me, for me,
as if I had been the only one in the world, and
were it necessary He would deliver Himself
again for me alone in order to gain my heart.
For Him, then, and Him alone, be all my
love.
2. Let us make our sacrifice continuous, like
that of Jesus. Let us place ourselves in His
Eucharistic Heart. In that sanctuary the
victim must offer itself unceasingly.
It is there that God is honoured by the sacri
fice of praise ; thence is poured forth throughout
the Church the prayer of intercession by which
souls are saved. Thus we shall console the
Divine Heart, which delights to be with the
children of men.
SUMMARY. — The spiritual and principal object
of devotion to the Sacred Heart is the love of
Our Lord devoting Himself for the salvation of
men, especially by His Passion and by the
Divine Eucharist. The material object is the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, that true human Heart
hypostatically united to the Divine Word, the
Heart living in all our tabernacles ; the symbol
of the boundless charity which Jesus Christ
has for each one of us ; the burning furnace of
that love which He would kindle upon the
earth ; the asylum for every afflicted heart ; the
14 Love, Peace, and Joy
source of delight for our souls, and the principle
of every grace. And still a Heart filled with
bitterness by the indifference and ingratitude of
men. The relative object of our worship is the
image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whether
represented with symbols of His Passion or
with such as remind us of His Eucharistic life.
SECOND DAY
THE ESPECIAL OBJECT OF DEVOTION TO THE
SACRED HEART IS TO DRAW ALL HEARTS
TO THE LOVE OF OUR LORD
WE have already seen that Our Lord's design
in the writings of St. Gertrude was to
make known the tenderness of His heart, and
thus to draw many hearts to Himself.
He also, on several occasions, gave His Heart
to Gertrude in a perceptible manner, and re
ceived her heart in exchange, to mark the mutual
gift of hearts His love demands between Himself
and us. He kept the heart of Gertrude ever
faithfully united to His own, that it might be to
us as a model. " Gertrude," said He to St.
Mechtilde, " so adheres to My Heart, and I have
united her to it so closely, that she has become
one spirit with Me. Thus she lives in an absolute
submission to My will. The members of a body
are less dependent on the heart than Gertrude is
subjected to My will. The moment a man says,
even in thought, to the hand, ' Do this ' ; to the eye,
' Look ' ; to the tongue, ' Speak ' ; to the foot,
' Advance ' ; at once, without the slightest hesita
tion, the hand, the tongue, the eye, the foot, obey.
Gertrude is to Me as a hand, an eye, a tongue,
which I can use as I wish, without meeting any
resistance to My desires."
Jesus showed Gertrude in an especial manner
15
16 Love, Peace, and Joy
how much the Divine Heart desires the con
version of sinners. One day, as the Saint was
praying for some miscreants who had caused
great harm to her monastery. Our Lord ap
peared to her. His arm was painfully bent and
distorted, and the sinews appeared quite broken.
He said to her : " Those who pray for the con
version of these unfortunate men pour a soothing
balm upon My suffering arm, and with a delicate
hand bring back little by little the muscles to their
proper place." Surprised at such an excess of
goodness, Gertrude said to Jesus : " Most sweet
Lord, how can you call such men your arm, un
worthy as they are of such an honour ?" "I call
them so in truth, because they are members of the
body of that Church of which I glory to be the
Head. Therefore, the state of their souls causes Me
unspeakable anxiety. My Heart has an intense
desire for their conversion."
CONSIDERATIONS. — i. The particular object
which Our Lord had in revealing to the world the
devotion to His Sacred Heart was, as we have
said, His love for men, all of whom He would
draw to Himself. He wants their hearts : " My
child, give Me thy heart." But love supposes
knowledge. Love finds its source in knowledge
and in sympathy. If hitherto Jesus has not
been loved, it is because He has not been
known ; therefore He makes a last effort to
spread among all the knowledge of His love.
It suffices for man to look at that Heart opened
by love to comprehend how much he is loved,
to see that he has a Saviour, a Friend ; and if he
gives this a moment's thought, he must neces
sarily feel attracted, for love wins love.
2. Jesus, then, wishes, first, to make known
to us His love for all mankind, and thus to
Second Day 17
extend the empire of His love, which consists
principally in the mutual gift of hearts between
Himself and us, and in the union of the life and
feelings of our hearts with His own. Our loving
Lord takes, as it were, the first step by giving
us His Divine Heart. Is it not only just that
His little creatures should give Him theirs in
return ? Such is the law of love, and in this
exchange it is surely we who gain— beauty,
peace, joy, and happiness. Oh, what wonderful
condescension ! that our God, in order to gain
our hearts, should deign to give us His own,
and exchange His treasures for our poverty,
His power for our weakness, His wisdom for our
ignorance ! Oh, let us go forth from ourselves,
as love makes God come forth, as it were, from
Himself for love of us !* Of ourselves we are
misery, error, sin, trouble, and vexation. May
our hearts go forth from this turmoil in which
they languish, and lose themselves in Jesus ;
plunge themselves in that ocean of mercy, that
fountain of all good, that centre of peace, that
torrent of delight !
Unity of life and feeling is another law of love
engraven in our nature. A friend lives the
same life as his friend — convivit ; their wishes
and thoughts are alike — concordat, f Without
this union there can be no true friendship. O
Jesus, Who art our Friend in the highest sense,!
come and live in our hearts, which Thou dost
wish to possess entirely. May Thy Heart be
our heart, Thy Will be our will, Thy Virtues our
virtues ! Speak in us, pray in us, and do Thou
Thyself work in all our actions. It is only by
* Amor divinus extasim facet (St. Denis).
f St. Thomas.
I Christus est maxime amicus (St. Thomas).
2
i8 Love, Peace, and Joy
this union that we can satisfy Thy love, that our
actions can become truly sanctified, and merit
that eternal reward which Thou hast promised.
3. By the devotion to the Sacred Heart, Jesus
has especially wished to propose to sinners the
object and means best calculated to effect their
conversion. If the sinner place himself for one
instant before that Heart which has loved and
still loves him so tenderly ; if he say to himself,
" Behold this Heart which to save me has
suffered such cruel torments, and I by my sins
grieve it and fill it with bitterness !" it is im
possible for him not to feel touched and desirous
of conversion. And to encourage him, to
facilitate his return, the loving Saviour at the
same moment offers him the easiest and surest
means — viz., love, which His Heart is ready to
communicate to him. Whatever may be the
number of his sins, love will efface them all.
Jesus will give him love, and love will give him
the assurance of pardon.
Jesus has deigned, above all, to prepare, as it
were indirectly, the most efficacious means of
obtaining the conversion of sinners, by inflaming
the zeal of their more faithful brethren, who are
to assist Him in saving these poor souls. It is,
above all, by holy contact with this Heart, which
has so loved men, that the zeal of a devoted
soul bursts forth into flame. In seeing what
Jesus has done for man, she would wish to do
as He did — pray, devote herself, suffer. Nothing
would be too hard when done to " fill up those
things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ "
(Col. i. 24)* to insure the salvation of souls.
* There is no want in the sufferings of Christ in
Himself as Head, but many sufferings are still wanting,
or are still to come, in His body the Church, and His
members the faithful.
Second Day 19
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Let us study the
love of the Heart of Jesus, and try to make it
known to others.
2. Let us frequently say that prayer of His
children, " My God, I give Thee my heart, give
me Thine in return," and let us endeavour to
transform ourselves entirely into Jesus by the
imitation of His Sacred Heart.
3. Let us zealously work by prayer and sacri
fice to bring back to the Heart of Jesus those
poor souls whose conversion He so ardently
desires.
MAXIMS. — i. By the writings of St. Gertrude
Jesus would reveal to us more and more the
tenderness of His Divine Heart, and draw our
hearts more and more to His love.
2. Union with the Heart of Jesus requires
that we should live in absolute dependence on
His will.
3. He who prays for the conversion of sinners
pours balm on the wounds of Jesus.
SUMMARY. — The express aim of the devotion
to the Sacred Heart is —
1. To propagate the knowledge of the love of
Jesus Christ for all mankind.
2. To establish the reign of love in faithful
souls by the mutual gift of hearts between Jesus
and ourselves, and by the union of our lives and
sentiments with His.
3. To make known to sinners the object and
the means best calculated to effect their con
version, by drawing them to love Our Lord ; and
also to aid their conversion by exciting the zeal
and obtaining the prayers of souls animated
with devotion to the Sacred Heart.
THIRD DAY
THE INWARD LIFE OF THE HEART OF JESUS
ST. GERTRUDE saw her companions hasten
ing one day to the church to hear a sermon,
while she was detained by illness in her cell.
" Ah, my beloved Lord," said she, with a sigh,
" how gladly would I go to the sermon if I were
not ill!" " Wouldst thou, My beloved," replied
Our Lord — " wouldst thou like Me to preach to
thee Myself?" "Most willingly," answered
Gertrude.
Then Jesus drew her soul near to His Heart,
and she there soon distinguished two beatings
most sweet to hear. " One of these beatings,"
said Jesus, " works the salvation of sinners, the
other the sanctification of the just. The first
speaks without intermission to My Father, in order
to appease His justice and draw down His mercy.
By this same beating I speak to all the Saints,
making excuse to them for sinners, with the zeal
and indulgence of a good brother, and urging
them to make intercession for them. This same
beating is the incessant appeal I mercifully address
to the sinner himself, with so unspeakable a desire
to see him come back to Me, that I never weary of
awaiting his return.
11 By the second beating I continually say to
My Father how deeply I rejoice in having given
Third Day 21
My blood for the ransom of so many just souls,
in whose love I take such manifold delight. I
invite the celestial court to admire with Me the
lives of these perfect souls, and to thank God for all
the blessings He has already bestowed on them, or
prepares to give them. In fine, this beating of My
Heart is the habitual and familiar intercourse
which I hold with the just, either to give them tender
proofs of My love or to rebuke them for their
faults, and cause them to progress from day to day
and from hour to hour.
" No exterior occupation, no distraction of
sight or hearing, interrupts the pulsations of the
human heart. In like manner, the Providential
government of the universe will never till the end
of time arrest, interrupt, or delay, even for a
moment, these two beatings of My Heart."
On Holy Thursday, Jesus made the heart of
Gertrude partake in the agony which His
Divine Heart experienced at the approach of
His Passion. It seemed to her that He passed
all this day in an agony of suffering and dejec
tion, foreseeing all that He would have to
endure. Being the son of a tender Virgin, and
even more sensitive to suffering than she, on
account of His more delicate organism, He
shuddered and trembled at every moment,
having the convulsed and livid appearance of
one at the point of death. And Gertrude,
sharing His agonies, experienced so great a
compassion that if she had possessed a thousand
hearts she would have consumed them all in
pitying so dear and loving a friend; she also
felt in her heart violent beatings (the effect of
love and desire), corresponding to the beatings
of the Heart of Jesus, and weUnigh causing her
to swoon away by their intensity. Our Lord
22 Love, Peace, and Joy
then said to her : " The love with which I was
inflamed at the time of the Passion, when My
Heart endured all these agonies, I feel to-day in
thy heart, which has so often been moved and
penetrated with compassion for all I suffered for
the salvation of My elect. Therefore, in return
for the compassion thou hast shown Me to-day, I
give thee all the merits of My Holy Passion for the
good of thy soul, and I wish also that thou shouldst
receive the same fruits of My Passion to distribute
them through the whole Church, in all the places
where the wood of the Cross is adored to-day."
CONSIDERATIONS. — The secret life of the
Heart of Jesus may be summed up in this one
word, Love — Caritas est. The two beatings of
the Divine Heart which Gertrude heard are
the beatings of love — love for God and for the
souls of men, love for the just and for sinners,
love which unites with the Sacred Heart, and
produces union among themselves between the
various members of His Body, and causes them
mutually to love one another, and work for
each other's good, even as the human heart,
which, as centre of the body, distributes to all
its members the nourishing blood which they
have contributed to prepare.
We, then, members of the mystical body of
Jesus, and animated by His Divine Heart,
ought to receive in us that current of love
which flows from Him to His members ; we
should feel the vibration of His Divine pulsa
tions, and thus partake in His sentiments and
live entirely by His holy life. This life, as we
have said, is love, a love which, through the
pulsations of the Heart of Jesus, has, as it were,
a twofold movement — that of thanksgiving for
the life received, that of reparation for the life
Third Day 23
misused — just as in the human body there is,
through the heart's pulsation, the double move
ment of circulation, which distributes the arterial
blood to the different members, and the reab-
sorption, by which their lost vigour is restored.
Oh yes, let us be wholly animated with the
sentiments of the Heart of Jesus ! May our
heart ever beat with this twofold pulsation of
thanksgiving and reparation which is incessant
in the Divine Heart ! Let us, in the first place,
cultivate that spirit of thanksgiving which this
grateful Heart desires so much to continue in us,
and begin by congratulating Our Lord on the
glory He has acquired by suffering for men,
and on the manifold joys He tastes in the hearts
of so many whom He has won by His love.
Let us, then, by Him invite the heavenly Court
to celebrate with us the infinite charity of our
God, and give Him thanks for all the blessings
He has granted or has in store for us, and let
us unite ourselves to the concert of praise which
rises without ceasing from every quarter of the
earth, inspired by that of Jesus in the taber
nacle of our altars.
Let our hearts incessantly speak to God the
Father on behalf of poor sinners, who are His
children even as we are ourselves. Let us con
tinually offer our tribute of reparation to appease
His offended justice, and our prayers of im-
petration to draw down His mercy upon all.
Finally, let us call to our aid all the citizens of
Heaven, and unite with the just on earth in
interceding for our brethren and imploring
pardon for them. Above all, let us unite our
selves to the ardent desires of the Heart of
Jesus for their conversion, offering for them
without ceasing the Blood of the Redeemer,
24 Love, Peace, and Joy
Whose voice is ever heard, and Who asks mercy
for all.
The work of reparation ought to be accom
panied by a sentiment of compassion ; this
increases its efficacy, and leads us to the practice
of immolation, which is its necessary conse
quence. Jesus complains in His sufferings of
not finding compassionate hearts. Ah, let us
at least respond, as devoted friends, to His
appeal ! Let us warmly sympathize with His
Heart, overwhelmed with bitterness and oppro
brium. Let us compassionate Him in His
Church, which is at the present time crucified
. with Him upon another Calvary ; compassionate
Him in those poor sinners who, as wounded
members, renew in themselves the sufferings of
His Passion ; compassionate Him by desire, by
love, by suffering. Let us grieve with Him in
order to console Him, share His sorrows to
sweeten them, offer ourselves without reserve
with Him, as victims of propitiation and of
immolation, in order " to fill up " (in ourselves)
" those things that are wanting to the sufferings
of Christ "* for the conversion of sinners, and
zealously devote ourselves by prayer, by action,
and by sacrifice, in union with Him, and without
reserve. Oh, how deeply will the Heart of
Jesus be touched in favour of those who try
thus to console Him ! How lovingly will He
bless those who thus aid Him in insuring the
efficacy of His Blood, and securing the salvation
of souls who are so dear to Him ! Ah, doubt
not ! He will give to us also, as to St. Gertrude,
* As we have said above, there is no want in the
sufferings of Christ in Himself as Head, but many suffer
ings are still wanting, or are still to come, in His body
the Church, and in His members the faithful,
Third Day 25
in an especial manner, and by a special applica
tion, all the fruit of His Passion, in order that we
may apply it to ourselves and pour it over the
souls of others.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Habitual acts of
thanksgiving to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all
that He has bestowed upon us.
2. Fervent acts of reparation to compensate,
as far as we are able, for the ingratitude of men
towards this loving Redeemer.
3. Lively feelings of compassion for the
Divine Heart, so overwhelmed with bitterness
and contempt.
4. Unreserved offering of ourselves as victims
of immolation and propitiation, in order to con
sole this Divine Heart, and by generous, un
bounded, untiring zeal, accomplish in ourselves
what is wanting in His Passion for the conver
sion of sinners. (See note, p. 24).
FOURTH DAY
DESIRES OF THE HEART OF JESUS
I.
ST. GERTRUDE once saw Our Lord on
Holy Thursday, before the Sisters ap
proached Holy Communion, reduced to a state
of extreme exhaustion by the intense desire of
His Divine Heart to be united to these beloved
souls. He was, as it were, prostrate on the
ground, having no strength. She was so
touched at this sight that she felt herself on the
point of losing consciousness ; but Our Lord
fortified her, and gave her to understand that
this exhaustion was the triumph of His love,
and that He was about to be filled with delight
in giving Himself, by Holy Communion, to these
souls for whom He had so ardently longed.
One day St. Mechtilde, astonished at the
proofs of the tender love of the Heart of Jesus,
through a feeling of respect, was about to with
draw from Him a little, but He, on the contrary,
drew her more closely, saying : " No, remain
with Me, that I may enjoy My happiness."
Another time He said to her : " Nothing gives
Me so much delight as the heart of man, of which
I am so often deprived. I have all good things in
abundance. The heart of man is alone still
wanting to Me."
26
Fourth Day 27
CONSIDERATIONS. — The Heart of Jesus is all
desire — totum desiderium (Cant.). He desires
the glory of His Father, for which alone He
works. He desires the heart of man, that He
may take His delight therein. Before His
Passion He ardently desired to suffer, in order
to purify us in the baptism of His Blood. Now
He desires, with a longing desire, to come to us
in Holy Communion, that He may sanctify us.
He desires us because He has redeemed us by
His sufferings, purchased us by His labours,
conquered us by His victories. He desires us
because we belong to Him, are His glory and
His delight. Let us, then, give Him what He
longs for so much. Who are we that we should
refuse unto love what love desires ? My God,
Who in the plenitude of Thy being dost eternally
suffice for Thyself, Thou wiliest through the
most tender friendship to have need of us, and
dost solicit our hearts with infinite love ; can
we have the baseness to refuse them ? Thou
askest them in order to sanctify and bless
them, and we are foolish enough to withhold
them ! Thou wouldst fill them with good
things, with Thy love, Thy Divine beatitude,
and we are so ungrateful as to close them
against Thee ! Oh no ! O God, so loving and
so worthy of love, to Thee, and Thee alone,
may our hearts belong ! We give them to
Thee for ever, without fear or reserve, and
through love alone abandon them entirely to
Thy WiU.
II.
Jesus desires us. Shall we not respond to
His love ? He longs for us. Shall we not long
for Him ? Desire is said to be the love of an
28 Love, Peace, and Joy
absent good. Alas ! Jesus is absent from us —
peregre profectus est. Let us long to go to Him,
to find Him, to reach Him : " Oh, ire ! Oh, sibi
perire ! Oh, ad te pervenire !" (St. Augustine,
Sermon clix.). Let us desire Him with the
desire which consumed the Apostle's heart when
he cried : " / am straightened . . . having a desire
to be dissolved and to be with Christ " (Phil. i. 23).
Oh, if we knew how, from His throne above, He
longs for us ! If we knew how all the Saints,
sharing His desires, await with impatience — as
He said to St. Gertrude — the moment when we
shall go to increase their number, how we should
despise this earth ! How our thoughts would
rise to Heaven, and our hearts and desires be
fixed on high, where all our treasure is !
But while awaiting the time when it may be
given us to possess Jesus in Heaven, let us
desire to do His will, to gain His Heart, to unite
ourselves to His Cross. Like Gertrude, let us
always seek to know His will in order to accom
plish it with fidelity. Be " in haste " to execute
His commands, eagerly seize the least sign which
manifests to us the good pleasure of His Heart,
and unceasingly ask Him to give us that Sacred
Heart, the pledge of His tenderness^ our supreme
treasure, and the organ of our love, and to unite
us to Himself in one bond of charity ! O love,
that which thou doest, do more quickly ! Oh,
if the gifts of love are so desirable, what must
love itself be — the source from which they
spring ? Lord, it is Thou Whom I love, Thou
for Whom I was created. Naught can satisfy me
but Thyself ; naught can content me but the gift
of Thy Heart ! More and more do I wish to give
Thee mine without reserve, that Thou mayest
in like manner bestow upon me Thine own.
Fourth Day 29
But let us not forget that the Cross ever
accompanies the gift of the Heart of Jesus. The
soul, united to this Divine Heart, and wholly
animated by His sentiments, desires, like Him,
that baptism of blood in which it will complete
its self-purification, and be transformed with
Him into a pure victim for the salvation of the
world. Love of the Cross is the mark of souls
devoted to the Heart of Jesus. In them the
desire of the Cross is often so intense as to
become, as it were, even a passion. " / believe,"
said one of these generous souls, " that the
desire of suffering will cause my death." Let
us also cultivate this desire in union with the
Heart of Jesus, saying with the Divine Victim,
" Ecce venio . . . ut facerem vohmtatem tuam :
Deus meus " — Behold I come . . . that I may
do Thy will, 0 my God (Ps. xxxix. 8, 9), and
henceforth may it be done to us according to
His good pleasure.
FIFTH DAY
DESIRES OF THE HEART OF JESUS— Continued
I.
CONTINUING the same subject already
treated of, let us give ourselves up to
boundless desires. In the first place, in our
prayers, like Daniel praying for his people,
let us be men of desires, and our supplications,
like his, will merit to be heard for the welfare
of the Church.
St. Gertrude, concentrating in her heart
universal and infinite desires, prayed with the
desires of the whole world, " ex affectu totius
universitatis," for the greatest good of the
whole universe in Heaven, on earth, and in
Purgatory. Hers was truly a heart according
to that of Jesus. Great like His, loving and
burning with desire like His. Let all our works
be animated with her boundless desires, in order
that they may respond to the needs of the Church,
which are truly without number. Little in
themselves, these works will become great by
our desires, and Jesus, Who takes the desire
for the reality, will give them an incomparable
value for the salvation of the world. " Oh, my
God," exclaimed St. Catherine of Siena, " how
wilt Thou be able in these unhappy times to
30
Fifth Day 31
provide for the wants of Thy Church ? I know
what Thou wilt do. Thy love will raise up men
of desires. Their finite works, joined to infinite
desires, will make Thee hear their prayers for
the salvation of the world."
It would seem, however, and above all with
regard to the Cross, that in these times, when
souls are so weak, the Heart of Jesus looks to
us for great desires to supply for sufferings
which are beyond our strength. " Lord," said
St. Gertrude, inspired by the Heart of Jesus,
" / offer Thee all the sufferings of my Sisters,
with the desire to endure them till the end of
the world if such is Thy good pleasure" Jesus
answered : " Frequently make Me this offering,
which inebriates My Heart, and prevents it from
refusing you anything" " Since this offering is
so agreeable to Thee, 0 Lord" said Gertrude,
" teach me how I shall be able to make it con
tinually " " Always offer Me, with a contrite
and humble heart, the desire to endure, were it
necessary for My glory, all the sufferings of the
world till the end of time, and thou shall obtain
from My Heart whatever thou shall choose to
ask."
Gertrude was very especially a Saint of
desires, and by these deserved the assurance
from Our Lord many times repeated that her
goodwill and her desires would be accepted and
counted as though they had really met with
their accomplishment. There are, in fact, a
certain number of Saints who became Saints
only by their desires.* God heard the prepara-
* St. John Berchmans, for example. The Venerable
Father de la Colombiere also said, in speaking of that
vow of perfection which had sanctified him : 'God
could -not fai1 to take the desire for the reality."
32 Love, Peace, and Joy
tion of their heart. The perfection of their
dispositions gained for them an increase of
grace, and the holiness of their intentions gave
incomparable merit to the least of their actions.
It is an especial characteristic of devotion to
the Sacred Heart (as St. Gertrude has made it
known) to sanctify us by desires. Let us adopt
this means, so easy, so sweet, so encouraging ;
let us turn all our intentions towards God, and
in our most trivial actions unite ourselves to the
Heart of Jesus by a pure, sincere, and boundless
desire to glorify His Father. Thus our souls
will become enriched with incomparable merit,
while the Heart of our good Master will have the
consolation of extending and satisfying in us
His own desires.
II.
There is, above all, one mystery of love in
which Our Lord would regret to be frustrated
in His desires, or to meet with impediment to
the delight of His Heart — viz., the mystery of
the Blessed Eucharist. Let us thoroughly
understand why He instituted it. It was that
He might be with us till the consummation of
time. Not, indeed, to remain alone, abandoned
in His Tabernacle, a true prisoner of love*
where we leave Him so often to languish in
isolation. Ah yes ! it is there, above all, that
He desires us with a longing desire, urging us
to come and unite ourselves to Himself, by
calling us unceasingly, entreating us, forcing us,
as it were, to approach. Respond, then, to His
appeal. Go to visit Him with an eagerness
equal to His love. Go to gather up the graces
Fifth Day 33
which He wishes to bestow on you by His Holy
Sacrifice. Go to unite yourself to Him by Holy
Communion. He opens to you His Heart.
Fear not. Say not so readily that you are not
sufficiently prepared. Since He, Who knows
all, invites you, it is because He has no desire
to await a longer preparation. He well knows
of what we are capable. He does not demand
from us perfect dispositions ; He is satisfied
with our goodwill. Go^ then, to Him without
delay, with confidence and trust. Prefer to
abandon yourself now to His loving mercy,
rather than have at a future time to render an
account to His justice for Communions missed
through your own fault, tender invitations to
which you have not responded, or for privi
leged graces of His Heart which you have
declined to receive.
Instead of wasting time in discussion, let us
rather strive, like St. Gertrude, to draw to
Jesus, along with ourselves, the souls of our
erring brethren, whom He longs so earnestly
to unite to Himself in Holy Communion.
" Make them come in" said Jesus to His spouse,
" those souls for whom thou hast prayed this week,
for I wish to have them at My table." " And how,
Lord, can I make them enter ? A II unworthy
as I am, if I could draw to Thee these men with
whom Thou dost deign to take Thy delight, I
would willingly go, from now till the day of
judgment, with bare feet, in search of them
throughout the whole world, would take them
in my arms, and come and offer them to Thee
in order to satisfy, even in the slightest degree,
the infinite desire of Thy Divine Heart. But
how can I do it?" " Thy desires, " answered
the Lord, " and thy goodwill suffice for all."
3
34 Love, Peace, and Joy
And we also, if we wish to please our Saviour,
let us try to bring back to Him those stray
sheep whom He longs to press to His Heart.
Let us pray, work, combat, suffer, and, if
necessary, die to conquer those souls for Him.
To-day, more than ever, is a time for combat.
See what enemies make war against the Church !
What infernal plots are laid for her destruction,
as if Satan was attempting a last effort to prevail
against her ! Let the soldiers of Christ, then,
put all other thoughts aside, and stand forth to
the battle ! This is not the time to be occupied
with ourselves and our own interests,* no
matter how important they may seem ! We
must fight ; we must succour the Holy Church ;
we must save our brethren. This is the wish
of the Heart of Jesus. This is our own desire.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Let us desire
every moment, as St. Gertrude did, to know
the wishes of the Heart of Jesus, in order to
share and to accomplish them.
2. Let us consider our desires to respond to
those of Jesus, as the best preparation for Holy
Communion. Holy Communion is a succour
for our needs, rather than a recompense for our
good dispositions. It is, above all, a nourishment
for which desire is an excellent preparation, just
as appetite is for the food of our body.
* It will be easily understood that this is not meant
for everyone. But are there not many souls whose
advancement in perfection would be surer and more
rapid if once for all they forgot themselves, to think
only of the interests of Jesus and His Church. " Think
of Me, and I will think of thee," said Jesus to St.
Catherine of Siena. For many souls this is the best
means they can make use of in order to free themselves
from their miseries, and advance with rapidity in the
ways of love
Fifth Day 35
3. Let us be men of desires for the salvation
of our brethren and the triumph of the
Church.
As the desires of Mary hastened the coming
of our Lord, so the desires of the just, in shorten
ing the days of tribulation, may hasten the
triumph of the Church.
SIXTH DAY
FIRST -FRUIT OF DEVOTION TO THE HEART
OF JESUS— THE HEART OF JESUS GIVES
LIFE TO ALL OUR ACTIONS
I
ON one occasion Jesus, holding His Heart in
His hands, presented it to Gertrude, say
ing : "Behold My most loving Heart, the harmonious
instrument whose tones enrapture the Holy
Trinity ; I give it to thee, and as a faithful and
ready servant, it will be at thy command to supply
for thy weaknesses.* Make use of My Heart,
and thy works will be pleasing to the sight and
the ear of God."
Gertrude hesitated to do this. Jesus, how
ever, overcame her fears, and, enlightening her
humility more fully, said to her : " A man has
to sing before a distinguished audience, but his
voice is shrill and false. He can scarcely produce
any sounds which do not grate on the ear. But
thou art near him ; thou hast (we will suppose] a
well-trained, clear, and brilliant voice ; thou canst
either give him thy voice or sing in his place.
Thou desirest to do so, and he knows thy desire.
Wouldst not thou fed indignant with him were he
to refuse his consent to thy proposal ? In like
* According to the text, " To repair at all hours thy
negligences."
36
Sixth Day 37
manner I know thy misery, and My Heart can
supply for it. It wishes to do so most earnestly,
for it would find therein a real joy. All that it
asks is that thou trust all to its care, if not by word,
at least by some sign of thy goodwill."
CONSIDERATIONS. — We have already recalled
how the twofold action of the human heart
consists in vivifying our different organs and
repairing our lost strength. This is also the
twofold action of the Heart of Jesus in His
mystical body the Church. He alone can give
life to our souls ; He alone can effectually re
pair all the losses we sustain.
In the first place, let us consider how the
Heart of Jesus vivifies all our actions and
renders them pure and holy. The different
organs of the human body, though in themselves
without understanding, become, as it were,
voluntary agents when acted upon by the will
and intelligence.
In the same way, the various works of man
become transformed and holy if they are united
to that Divine principle — viz., the Heart of
Jesus.
The essential point, then, in Christian life is
complete union with the Heart of Jesus. When
this union is habitual it enables us to arrive
rapidly at the highest perfection, as our Lord
Himself taught St. Mechtilde. One day, when
she had just received Holy Communion, it
seemed to her that her heart was absorbed by
the Heart of Jesus and made one with Him.
"It is thus," He said to her, " that I wish
the heart of man to be united to Me, that it
may wish for nothing of itself, but regulate all
its desires according to those of My Heart, as
two winds which, blowing together, form but
38 Love, Peace, and Joy
one current of air. Man ought also to unite
himself to My Heart in all his actions. If, for
example, he is about to eat or sleep, let him
say :
' ' Lord, in union with that love which made
Thee create this refreshment for me, I wish to
take it, for Thy glory and the good of my body/
In the same way, when he has any work to do,
let him say : ' Lord, in union with that love
which made Thee labour with Thy hands,
makes Thee still work in my soul, and leads
Thee now to enjoin upon me this task, I
wish to acquit myself of it, for Thy glory and
the salvation of all mankind. Since Thou hast
said, " Without Me you can do nothing,"* deign
to perfect this work by its union with Thy
works, as a drop of water, falling into a river,
assimilates itself to the stream/ Let man, in
fine, so unite himself to My Heart that in
adversity, as well as in prosperity, he may will
only what I will, and thus, as copper melted
in the fire with gold becomes with it one
precious metal, his heart will in like manner
become one with Mine, which is the highest
perfection of this life."
Let us apply this doctrine in detail to the
different acts of our life. We ought, in the
first place, to unite our prayers to those of the
Heart of Jesus. " Once, on Palm Sunday,
St. Gertrude, burning with desire to give
hospitality to Jesus, as the family at Bethany
had done on that day, threw herself at the foot
of her crucifix, and kissing with fervour the
wound of the sacred side of Jesus, she tried to
imbibe all the desires of His most loving Heart,
beseeching Him by all the prayers which had
* John xv. 5.
Sixth Day 39
issued from that adorable Heart to come and
dwell in her. Jesus at once heard her prayer,
and loaded her with favours." How could He
have resisted His own desire, or turned a deaf
ear to the prayer of His own Heart ?
He had Himself recommended to her this
method of prayer. " Each time thou wouldst
pray for any souls, offer Me My most gracious
Heart, in union with the love which made Me
take this human heart for the salvation of man
kind, and in union with that especial love with
which I have given it to thee so often, and I will
then grant thee whatever thou mayest ask for
men. It will be as if the safe of a rich man were
brought to him, that he might draw from it presents
for his friends."
Do we not feel that prayer thus made must
have an irresistible power with the Heart of
Jesus ? Oh, best of friends, I ask of Thee what
Thou wishest more than I — the salvation of
souls ; I ask it in the name of the love Thou
hast for them ; I ask it for the consolation of
Thy Heart ; for the sake of the love Thou hast
shown to me so often, and for the sake of that
Heart of Thine which Thou hast so frequently
given me ! Oh yes, if we pray thus we shall
be able to say as the Church invites us : " Hoc
igitur invento Corde tuo et meo."* I have dis
covered how to pray in a supremely efficacious
manner ; I he.ve found the Heart of Jesus,
which is also my heart, since I am a member of
His body, and with this Heart I will pray to
God, my Father, and my prayer will always be
heard.
St. Gertrude teaches us also how our actions
are ennobled and sanctified by union with the
* Off. S. Cordis Jesus, Lect. II., Noct.
40 Love, Peace, and Joy
Heart of Jesus. She recommends the soul to
place all her works in His Heart as in a sacred
refuge, that they may be transformed and
sanctified by His Divine intentions.
II
It seems, however, that the Heart of Jesus
desires, above all, that we shall unite our suffer
ings to His, in order that He may communicate
to them His infinite merits. There is nothing
that He recommends so frequently. One day,
when St. Mechtilde felt that her infirmities
rendered her, as it were, useless in the service
of God, Jesus said to her : " Place all thy
sufferings in My Heart, and I will give them the
highest perfection for the utility of the whole
Church. Even as My Divinity has united to
itself the sufferings of My humanity, in order
to make them Divine, so I wish to unite thy
sufferings to Myself, in order to render them
perfect. Offer them to My love, saying : ' O
Love, to Thee do I entrust my sufferings, with
the same intention with which Thou hast
brought them to me from the Heart of my
God ; and I beseech Thee, with my deepest
gratitude, to receive them again when Thou
hast given them their highest perfection. ' Thy
heart will thus unite itself to the love which
makes Me embrace the Cross with My whole
Heart, and to the gratitude with which I
thanked My Father for having permitted Me
to suffer for those I love ; and even as My
Passion has borne infinite fruits, both in Heaven
and on earth, thy sufferings, even the most
trivial, when united to My Passion, will bear
Sixth Day 41
such fruits that the citizens of Heaven will
receive from them an increase of glory ; the
just an increase of grace ; sinners their pardon ;
and the souls in Purgatory an alleviation of
their pains. What is there, in fact, that My
Divine Heart cannot change for the better,
since all that is precious in Heaven and on
earth has its source in the goodness of My
Heart ?" And why should not we also, in all,
even the most trivial of our sufferings, assure to
ourselves the incomparable fruits which union
with the Heart of Jesus secured for our Saint ?
Why should not we also receive them with the
love and gratitude which she drew from the
Saviour's Heart ? It is so sweet and easy to
do so ! It is not a question of suffering more,
but of suffering better, with more consolation
and fruit. We have only to suffer all in union
with the Heart of Jesus. May it be henceforth
our habitual practice !
Is it not evident that if we thus place our
trials in the Heart of Jesus, they will at once
be greatly alleviated ? On one occasion, as
St. Mechtilde was praying for a person in
affliction, Our Lord said to her : " Let her, with
childlike simplicity, bring all her troubles to
Me ; let her seek her consolation in My com
passionate Heart, and I will never abandon
her." " Jesus," adds the Saint, " has bestowed
on us the gift of His Heart, in order that we may,
when in sorrow, seek our refuge and our con
solation therein"
St. Gertrude was in the habit of offering to
God the canticle of praise and thanksgiving
" with the melodious instrument of the Heart
of Jesus, according to the intentions of that
Heart, and in the name of all creatures."
42 Love, Peace, and Joy
St. Mechtilde also made frequent use of this
most amiable Heart as a lyre by which to make
the chant of praise and thanksgiving resound
in the name of all creation.*
The Heart of Jesus was for the two Saints
the especial organ of their love, and it frequently
happened that when they found themselves
slothful and without devotion they felt the
Divine Heart placing itself on their own like
burning gold, and inflaming them with its
love.
Jesus had given His Heart to St. Mechtilde,
and He offers it, in the same way, to each of
us, for a triple union and as a triple source of
incomparable and enriching grace.
1. As an organ of love : " I give thee My
Heart," said He to her, " that by its love thou
mayest love thy God and all creatures for His
sake/'
2. As an organ of thanksgiving : " Blessed
be Thou, O most amiable Heart of Jesus,"
said she each morning — " blessed be Thou for
the praise, thanksgiving, and other tributes
of honour, which Thou hast offered to God
the Father during this night in my place."
3. As a means of reparation : " Dost thou
wish to be perfectly faithful to Me ?" said
Jesus to His servant, when He saw her grieving
for her failures. " Love better to see thy negli
gences repaired by My Divine Heart than by
thyself (supposing even thou wert able to repair
them), that thereby it may receive greater
honour and glory."
Oh, may we also thus make use of this loving
Heart, which longs to expend itself entirely
* A favourite practice with both Saints was to
praise Mary by the Heart of her beloved Son.
Sixth Day 43
in our service — " totus in nostros usus it
sus " / May it be the organ of our love, that
our whole life may be one of pure love ; the
organ of our thanksgiving, that through it,
both day and night, there may rise from our
hearts the tribute of gratitude which is so
pleasing to God ; the organ of our prayers and
desires, that they may mount direct to Heaven
as an incense of sweet odour, and obtain all
they ask, in blending themselves with those of
Jesus ! Who is always heard by His Eternal
Father. May He be the mainspring of our
actions, and communicate to them His infinite
merits ! Finally, may all our sufferings be
united to His, that we may be consumed
with Him in one sacrifice of love, and with
Him glorify God our Father, and save the
souls of our brethren !
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Let us pray,
by means of the Heart of Jesus, by imbibing
His desires, loving with His love, wishing with
His will, and thus our prayer will always be
heard, because it will always be in accordance
with the Heart of God.
2. Let us make use of the Heart of Jesus in
all our actions, that He may render them
perfect.
3. Let us faithfully offer to Jesus all our
sufferings, even the most trivial, that He may
unite them to His own, and enable us to accept
them with the love of His Divine Heart — a
twofold condition, which will insure for them
an incomparable merit.
4. In prayer let us, as we have said above,
use the Heart of Jesus as the instrument by
which we express our love, our thanksgiving,
and all the acts of worship we owe to God.
44 Love, Peace, and Joy
Such prayer will be as easy for us as it will be
acceptable to Him.
THEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. — i. Suarez* pro
mises efficacy to prayer even in cases which
seem hopeless on the following two conditions :
(a) That it springs from a heart closely
united to God.
(b) That it is offered to God with very great
fervour.
Is not the Heart of Jesus " maxime amicus "
(our greatest friend) ? And if we appropriate to
ourselves, by union with Him, those strong
cries and supplications which He addressed to
Heaven, may we not hope to be heard like Him ?
2. Our actions derive their supernatural value
from the grace which produces and the love
which informs them. Now, the Heart of Jesus
is the source of grace and the furnace of love ;
hence, the more we are united to the Heart of
Jesus, the more our actions are filled by His
grace and inflamed by the fire of His love,
and, consequently, the more is their supernatural
value increased.
3. Let us connect the two following prin
ciples :
(a) " In satisfaction magis attenditur effectus
quam quanitas " (St. Thomas).
(b) " Satis factio pro alter o, pr&sertim vivo
infallibilis est " (Suarez).
We may infer from this that by uniting our
selves in prayer to the love of the Heart of
Jesus on the Cross, and by appropriating to
ourselves the Divine satisfactions which He
transfers to those who are thus united to Him,
we insure to our trials an incomparably satis
factory value.
* " De Oratione."
Sixth Day 45
4. According to the law of love, Jesus looks
upon us as being one with Him — " velut unum
sibi " (St. Thomas). Hence it results that He
loves and thanks God for us as for Himself,
and therefore we may appropriate this love
and thanksgiving as though really ours and
offered for us.
SEVENTH DAY
SECOND FRUIT OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED
HEART— THE HEART OF JESUS MAKES
ATONEMENT FOR US
WE have already seen how Jesus gave His
Heart to St. Gertrude, to atone for
all her negligences and render her works
perfect.
One day Gertrude, pondering in her heart,
with a deep feeling of gratitude, the signal
service granted to her by the Heart of Jesus,
in thus making atonement for her, asked our
Lord for how long a time He would allow her
to enjoy this favour. ' As long,' answered
Jesus, ' as thou shall 'desire to possess it. Never
wilt thou have to regret that it has been withdrawn
by Me.' At the sight of such goodness, the
Saint, more and more penetrated with admira
tion and gratitude, descended with deep abase
ment into the valley of humility ; but our Lord
lovingly followed her thither, and seemed to
pour from His Divine Heart a river, as it were
of gold, which flowed down upon this humbled
soul, and by which He enriched it with an
abundance of His graces. Thus, [according as
she humbled herself for her faults, the Lord*
by means of the graces flowing from His Sacred
46
Seventh Day 47
Heart, entirely effaced them, and communicated
to her in their stead His Divine virtues, that so
she might appear all holy and spotless like Him.
The Heart of the Good Master would not only
repair the losses Gertrude suffered through her
failures, but even those which resulted from
her occupations and the distractions arising
from the duties of the day. One Friday, as
night approached, Gertrude, casting her eyes
on her crucifix, said to our Lord, with a heart
full of compunction : ' Most sweet and loving
Creator, what torments Thou didst suffer to
day for my salvation, and how sorry I am
to have passed the day in distracting occupa
tions without recalling to mind what, at each
hour, Thou didst endure for me — Thou, Who,
being Life itself, didst die through love of my
love /'
Jesus answered her from the summit of His
Cross : ' W hat thou hast thus neglected to do, I have
supplied for thee. Every hour, as the day passed,
I gathered into My Heart what thou shouldst have
collected in thine own ; consequently it is so filled
with graces for thee that it is, as it were, quite
overflowing, and I was eagerly awaiting the
moment when thou wouldst address this prayer
to Me, for without it all that I had collected
would have been of no profit to thee ; but with
this prayer thou canst, before God, My Father,
appropriate all, as if belonging to thyself.'
O love, O generosity of the Heart of Jesus,
how truly dost Thou deserve the praise of all
hearts !
Can anything, also, be more touching than
the liberality with which Jesus paid Gertrude's
debts to the Blessed Virgin ? " Oh, my Brother,"
said our Saint one day to Him, " since Thou
48 Love, Peace, and Joy
becamest Man to pay the debts of mankind,
deign now, I beseech Thee, to supply for my
poverty arid repair the faults I have com
mitted against Thy Blessed Mother." At this
Jesus, rising at once, with great reverence
drew near to His Mother, and saluted her,
bowing His head with charming and gracious
dignity. This tribute of respect from the Son
of Mary superabundantly paid all Gertrude's
debts. May not every soul devoted to Jesus
Christ appropriate to herself the sentiments
and confiding language of St. Gertrude, in order
to induce the Heart of Jesus to pay all her
debts to God and to her neighbour ?
CONSIDERATIONS. — We have already spoken
of reparation as one aim of devotion to the
Sacred Heart, but that was as reparation offered
to the Heart of Jesus for others ; now we speak
of reparation for ourselves, and it is that Heart
which atones for us and in us.
According to St. Gertrude, of all helps which
we find in devotion to the Sacred Heart, this is
the best calculated to aid our spiritual pro
gress. One day, recalling to mind the different
favours she had received from God, she won
dered which of them, if made known, would be
most conducive to the spiritual advancement
of men. Our Lord condescendingly responded
to her thought, and indicated to her clearly
the merciful desire of His Heart to repair all
our faults : " Make known to men the benefit
they will derive from ever remembering that I,
the Son of the Virgin, stand before God the Father
for their salvation, and when they commit any
fault, I offer My spotless Heart to the Divine
Justice for them."
Let us meditate with simplicity on the
Seventh Day 49
lessons given us by St. Gertrude. We shall
then see how the Heart of Jesus wishes to
repair our faults, supply for our involuntary
failures, and acquit for us the debts we owe to
God and to the Church, on one condition —
viz., that we ask this grace with a heart,
contrite and humble certainly, but above all
replete with confidence. And He will fully do
what we ask in order to perfect our works,
complete our task, and consummate us in
Himself.
The Heart of Jesus eagerly desires, in the
first place, to repair all our faults. He looks
upon them in a certain way as if they were
His own : " Verba delictorum meorum."
On account of His union with His mystical
body the Church, and the intimate connection
that exists between Him and us, they are contrary
to His interests ; they tend to the ruin of His
work, are more injurious to Him than to
ourselves, and far more than ourselves does
He desire to efface and to destroy them ; this
is for Him a pressing need, a necessary con
solation. The only thing that He asks from us
is that we lay them before Him with a contrite
and confiding heart, which never loses courage ;
with a goodwill* which rises courageously
after each fall, and which, occupied entirely
with the interests of Jesus, believes that, by
His infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, He
will always be able to repair the faults of our
weakness, our ignorance, and our malice, which
are in their nature limited. Lay them, there
fore, before Him in all confidence, and every
* This goodwill, if thorough and sincere, contains
the will to work and combat as much as we are able
for our amendment.
4
5O Love, Peace, and Joy
day, every hour, make with fidelity the Offering
of our faults, so well known to the friends of
the Sacred Heart.*
II
In the next place, let us lay before the Heart
of Jesus our involuntary failures, our many
losses, the result of our weakness, our omis
sions also, and our negligences, and thus give
to that Divine Heart the glory and consolation
of repairing them. Let us even, as Jesus
desired St. Mechtilde, much prefer to see our
faults repaired by His love rather than by
ourselves, even if we were able to do it, in
order that His honour and glory may be in
creased, for surely that is the supreme desire
of every soul devoted to the Sacred Heart.
His glory consists, above all, in manifesting His
goodness and His mercy, and how can He show
His goodness but by bestowing upon us what
we require ? And how raise up the throne of
His mercy, if not on the basis of our miseries ?
If we have really blended our interests with
His, according to the law of love and the
condition of our association with Him, what
have we to do when those interests have
suffered by our negligence but simply tell Him
all, that He may supply for all by His infinite
riches ?
For the same reason, in the spiritual associa
tion which Jesus has deigned to form with us,
in order to provide for the wants of His Church,
we can only (poor indigent sinners as we are)
draw from the rich treasure of the Heart of our
* See with regard to this an admirable chapter of
P£re Ramiere in his book on "The Apostleship of
Prayer."
Seventh Day 51
Divine Associate what we need to pay our
debts — that is to say, all that we, on our part,
are bound to contribute in the Communion of
Saints.
Jesus has said it. His Heart ardently de
sires to atone and satisfy for us. It is His joy
and His glory. All that He asks from us is
that we have recourse to Him, with a repentant
heart, certainly, but without any doubt, and,
above all, with the confiding heart of a friend.
Touched, as we have seen, by the sorrowful
compunction evinced by Gertrude, He restored
to her all the graces she had lost during the
day. When He saw her humbling herself for
her faults, He poured His grace upon her in
abundance in order to efface them, and clothed
her with His Divine virtues. His Heart was
charmed with her confidence, which nothing
could disconcert, because she knew He was her
Friend, and she could rely upon His mercy.
It was to this confidence that He attributed
all the favours He bestowed upon her. How
could it be otherwise ? How could the Heart
of Jesus remain insensible when we address
Him as our Friend, our Brother, our Spouse ?
when we remind Him that He has shed His
Blood to pay our debts, and that it is precisely
of this Blood we would profit by rendering it
efficacious for our Redemption ? All this tends,
indeed, to perfect that work of Redemption,
to accomplish in us what is wanting in the
Passion of Christ,* and to consummate us in
Him so that, at the end of time, He may be
able to say for Himself and for His members,
" Consummatum est " — All is consummated. In
thus asking our Lord to supply and to repair
* Note, as above, p. 24,
52 Love, Peace, and Joy
for us we are sure to enter into His design, to
respond to His desire, and accomplish His
Will ; for we know from Scripture that if we
ask Him anything according to His Will we
shall certainly obtain it. Let us, then, draw
near to the loving Heart of Jesus with the
assurance of obtaining all the help that we
require. He will perfect our works, and,
according to the word of the Holy Spirit, com
plete in us what is wanting on our part for the
accomplishment of His work.
Do we not feel how encouraging, how
strengthening, how enriching, is this doctrine ?
How quickly would devotion to the Sacred
Heart, thus understood and thus practised, be
able to raise us to the highest perfection ! Yes,
if we would truly glorify Jesus according to
the motto of His friends, A. M. D. G., if we
would be victims consumed by His love, let us
adopt these practices, and faithfully, each day
and each hour, lay our failures and our debts
before the merciful Heart of Jesus, that each
hour and each day may be perfected and con
summated by His love. Oh, " let us give to Jesus
according to the liberality of His generous Heart "
(as He asked St. Mechtilde), " according to His
goodness, and not according to our own " — that
is, let us have boundless confidence in His
love, that, becoming rich through His infinite
liberality and generosity, we may, in our turn,
make Him a liberal and generous return.
Since this good Master places His talents so
freely at our disposal, let us employ them
with confidence for His glory ; let us labour
generously in His service, that nothing may be
wanting in the consolation we owe Him, and
the glory we ought to procure for Him.
Seventh Day 53
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.— i. The daily offer
ing of our faults to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
at each examen, after every action, with a
deep sentiment of confidence and true love,
saying to Him, as He Himself taught St.
Mechtilde : "I wish to be perfectly faithful to
Thee ; I would much rather see my faults re
paired by Thy love than by myself, supposing
I were able to repair them, in order that a greater
honour and glory may redound to Thee."
2. The offering of our involuntary failures,
omissions, etc., resulting from our occupations,
our distractions, our weaknesses, etc., saying
to Our Lord, as He again inspired St. Mechtilde :
" Lord, I wish to give to Thee according to the
liberality of Thy generous Heart, according to
Thy goodness, and not according to mine. Deign,
then, to return to me all that I have involuntarily
lost, that I may give it back to Thee with a liberality
like unto Thine own."
3. The offering of the debts we owe to God,
to Mary, to the Church, to the souls in Purga
tory, to sinners, to the agonizing ; debts in
curred in the fulfilment of the duties of our
state, of our various employments, etc., saying
to Jesus, like St. Gertrude : " Oh, my Brother,
since Thou didst become Man to pay the debts
of mankind, deign now, I beseech Thee, to supply
for my indigence, and entirely acquit those debts
which I have incurred"
EIGHTH DAY
THE EASY WAYS OF DIVINE LOVE THROUGH
DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART, AS
UNDERSTOOD BY ST. GERTRUDE
IN the book of St. Gertrude, the Heart of
Jesus has arranged everything so as to draw
us sweetly to Himself by the easy way of love.
When the book was finished He appeared to
her holding it close to His Heart, and said:
"/ press this book to My Heart in order to
penetrate each letter with the sweetness of My
love, and I will that in each page the picture of
My gratuitous goodness should be seen."
Another time, when the transcriber of this
book carried it hidden under her mantle as
she went to Communion, to offer it to Our
Lord for a tribute of everlasting praise, as she
prostrated before the Sacred Host, one of her
companions noticed how Jesus, in the excess
of His infinite goodness, came to meet the
Sister thus prostrate, and embraced her tenderly,
saying : " Yest I wish that all the words of this
book, which you offer Me, or, rather, which My
Spirit has Himself dictated, should be filled with
the richness of My love. Whosoever, coming to
Me with a contrite and humble heart, shall desire
to read herein for the love of My love, I will make
him repose upon My Heart, and will show him,
54
Eighth Day 55
as with My finger, the places most suitable and
advantageous to him."
The book of St. Gertrude comes, then, from
the Heart of Jesus^ and leads us to Him by a
path full of sweetness, goodness, and love.
CONSIDERATIONS. — One of the marvels of
St. Gertrude's spirituality is that she, more
than any other, renders easy and accessible to
all the sanctification of the soul and the highest
perfection. To be united to God, associated
to His works, and to the merits of Our Lord*
appears to be with her the affair of every hour
and of every circumstance ; that the least move
ment of sincere goodwill suffices for anyone to
acquire a right to the highest merits and the
most glorious reward (pref. to the translation
by the Benedictine Fathers). This thought of
the learned editors of St. Gertrude is only, as
may be seen, the development of the title of
this chapter. The spirituality of St. Gertrude
may be reduced to three things — desire, union,
abandonment : desire of God's glory ; union with
Jesus, with His Passion, with His Heart, with
His Saints ; abandonment to the good pleasure
of God and to His Providence. Can anything
be easier than this for a soul of goodwill ?
Anything more consoling, more attractive, more
encouraging ? There is here no question of
great mortifications, of long and difficult prac
tices, of extraordinary and sublime virtues.
Of these St. Gertrude speaks little. She draws
the three dispositions, desire, union, and
abandonment, from the Heart of Jesus, and bears
them everywhere. This seems to be her whole
secret for loving God, advancing in love, and
attaining the perfection of her love. May
this dear Saint aid us to seize her secret
56 Love, Peace, and Joy
thoroughly — above all, to put it in practice,
that, following her in these easy paths of Divine
love, we may, like her, arrive at the term which
should be the object of all our desires ! What
joy for us, in our little work, if these simple
reflections help even one soul to find its way,
that way of truth which we ought to choose ;
that way of freedom which our heart needs
to find in order to advance with rapid pace in
Divine love !*
Let us first see how easy is this way and how
safe. Desire may be considered to relate more
especially to prayer, union to action, and
abandonment to suffering, though, indeed,
these three dispositions are, in some degree,
necessary to prayer, action, and suffering, in
order to insure to them all their value. We
have already spoken of desires in prayer, and
of souls who thereby obtain everything — like
Daniel, who obtained the deliverance of his
people, and Mary, who, by her desires, drew
the Saviour down to earth. Is anything easier
than to practise this prayer of desire, in appro
priating to oneself the desires of the Heart of
Jesus by the assistance of St. Gertrude, in
making use of her books ? Desire there finds
expression under the most pious and most
varied forms — desire of praising God, of loving
Him ; desires of zeal ; universal and perpetual
desires, extending from all to all. Now, any
one of these different forms offers matter enough
* Let us not forget that what is here said supposes a
soul of goodwill, who does what in her lies, with
regard to prayer, action, and sacrifice, and who seeks
a means and a way to make further progress. Our
good Saint indicates this way, simple, easy, suitable,
to all, and able to make us advance with speed, to run
in the commandments and the counsels of God.
Eighth Day 57
for meditation and prayer, and to sustain a
soul for long — indeed, for a considerable portion
of one's life. One may try, for example, to
become familiar with the beautiful and rich
formulas in the book entitled " Prayers of St.
Gertrude." In making use of them for some time,
the soul will, as if by necessity, become, after
the manner of St. Gertrude, a soul of desires,
and thus enter the path of high sanctity.
As a means of sanctifying our actions, St.
Gertrude proposes to us especially union —
union with the merits of Jesus, union with the
Saints and with our brethren. We have already
seen how union with the Heart of Jesus enhances
the value of our works. By union with the
Saints we in the same way appropriate their
merits, in virtue of the principle that " chanty
makes its own what belongs to our neighbour.
This appropriation is more or less perfect,
according to our greater or less union with
those glorious friends who desire nothing more
than to communicate to us their merits and
open to us their treasures.
Union with our brethren here below also
enables us to appropriate to ourselves the merit
of their good works, in virtue of the doctrine
of the Communion of Saints ; and theologians
recognize that this participation in the merits
of our brethren is proportioned to the degree of
union existing between us in the order of charity,
or on account of some especial spiritual affection.
In the third place, with regard to suffering,
abandonment (which must not, however, be
separated from desire and union) seems to be
the easiest and most perfect disposition. It is
the " Fiat voluntas tua " of the Paternoster and of
the agony of Jesus. By the ' ' Fiat ' ' of the Pater
58 Love, Peace, and Joy
I resign myself entirely to the Will of God, that
it may be perfectly accomplished in me. Now,
" this is the will of God your sanctification
— Hoc est voluntas Dei sanctificatio vestra. There
fore conformity to that holy Will must be the
best means for attaining holiness.
In repeating the " Fiat ' ' of the agonizing Heart
of Jesus, I abandon myself without reserve to
the designs of His Heavenly Father with regard
to the redemption of the world. Now, God's
design is, that all men should be saved ; I
therefore co-operate, as far as I am able, in
the salvation of souls, and become as much as
possible associated with our Divine Saviour in
the redemption of the world. Thus everything,
it seems, may be included in " abandonment " —
viz., conformity to the Will of God.
If we broach the question of voluntary
suffering or mortification, may we not include
it also in conformity, so far, at least, as it refers
to the practice of mortifications marked out
for us by the Will of God, the attractions of
grace,* or the voice of obedience ? And here,
again, is not such practice sweet and easy, since
we are guided by those Divine attractions ;
holy* since we only seek in them the accom
plishment of God's will ; and quite safe, since
we are guided in all by the rule of obedience ?
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — Aim at becoming
a soul of desires.
Unite ourselves to the Heart of Jesus in all
our occupations.
Practise childlike conformity to the Will of
God in all our trials.
* This grace may be a good word, or lecture, or
thought — anything, in fine, that Providence sends to
anticipate and encourage our goodwill.
NINTH DAY
THE EASY WAYS OF DIVINE LOVE BY DEVO
TION TO THE SACRED HEART, ACCORDING
TO ST. GERTRUDE— Continued
IT is no longer difficult to show how St. Ger
trude included all holiness in these three
easy and encouraging means : Desire, Union,
and Abandonment. Of this we have already
given, and will still give, proofs.
With regard to desires, for example, a holy
soul, seeing how Our Lord loved St. Gertrude,
asked Him what thus won His affection.
" Several virtues," answered the Saviour, " which
I have bestowed upon her; but especially that
charity which makes her desire the salvation of
all men for My glory, and that fidelity which
makes her consecrate all she has, without any
reserve, for the salvation of the whole universe."
Jesus, in order to show her that He under
took to realize and to complete her desires, made
a holy soul write to her these encouraging
words : " Your soul yields to your Beloved a
hundred for one, by the desires it forms for itself
and for its neighbour. The Lord Jesus makes
up for the weakness of those desires. He renders
to God the Father the worship you would wish
to offer Him for yourself and for others, and
perfects your endeavours in such a manner that
nothing is wanting." We see by this how a
59
6o Love, Peace, and Joy
soul of desires may find those desires accom
plished by the Heart of Jesus, not only with
regard to her own sanctification, but also with
regard to the wishes which, inspired by zeal,
she forms for the Church and for the salvation
of souls.
I know well that we can only appropriate to
ourselves those especial favours granted to
Gertrude in proportion to our own dispositions ;
but it is precisely about these dispositions that
there is question in this chapter, and the more
perfect they are in us, the more surely shall we
obtain a result similar to that of our Saint.
We have already seen how, by union, Ger
trude appropriates to herself the merits of
Jesus. She does the same with the merits
of the Saints. One day, before Communion,
finding herself but little prepared, she asked
the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints to offer
to God for her all the good dispositions with
which they had prepared to receive His graces.
She also besought Our Lord to offer for
her His own perfect dispositions, when, on
the day of His Ascension, He was about to
appear before His Father. Then, some time
after, as she tried to discover what she had
gained by this prayer, Jesus said to her : " Thou
hast gained to appear in the eyes of the citizens
of Heaven, adorned, with all the merits thou hadst
asked for." Then He added : " Why shouldst
thou distrust Me, Who am the Lord Almighty
and beneficent ? Cannot I act like an earthly
friend who adorns his friend with his own orna
ments, in order that he may appear as richly
attired as himself ?"
Gertrude in the same way appropriated the
merits of her neighbour. One day when her
Ninth Day 61
Sisters had performed particular devotions for
the souls in Purgatory, Jesus said to her : " And
thou, what wilt thou give Me to increase My
liberalities to these suffering souls ?" She an
swered : " I offer Thee all that my Sisters have
done, appropriating it entirely to myself, in virtue
of the union which Thou hast, by Thy charity,
established between us." And Jesus gave her
to understand that He had fully accepted her
offering.
Finally, with regard to suffering, the disposi
tion which Jesus requires from St. Gertrude is,
above all, abandonment. He wishes her to
look upon the most crucifying arrangements of
His Providence as pleasant and agreeable. He
wishes her to let Him find His repose in the
labours which He imposes on her ; to abandon
herself to Him with regard to illness, perse
cutions, interior trials — in a word, to every
suffering. But also, if Gertrude asks expressly
to suffer more, Jesus indicates to her that the
disposition He likes best to see in her is aban
donment to His good pleasure, so that she
should choose nothing for herself, neither con
solation nor trial, but remain entirely aban
doned to the sweet Will of God in suffering or
in consolation, in sorrow or in joy.
Gertrude had drawn these most sanctifying
dispositions from the Heart of Jesus. That
Heart is, as we have already said, all desire.
It is also the centre of union and the resting-
place of abandonment. It is the Heart of Jesus
which must communicate to us those sentiments
which sanctify our works (hoc sentite). It is the
Heart of Jesus which unites us with our brethren,
as the heart of man unites the different members
of his body by means of circulation and by
62 Love, Peace, and Joy
using for the benefit of all the vital resources
contributed by each.
It is, above all, in Communion, the sacra
ment of union — " Sacr amentum unitatis ecclesi
astics" (St. Thomas)— that the Heart of Jesus
unites us to Itself and to each other, and if we
fully enter into this union we may by it appro
priate to ourselves the various merits of the
Saints and of our brethren on earth.
Finally, the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus
with regard to suffering may be included in
abandonment — loving, filial, complete abandon
ment. Loving, which makes Him say on
entering the world : " Burnt-offering and sin-
offering Thou didst not require: then said I,
Behold I come that I should do Thy Will: 0 My
God, I have desired it, and Thy law in the midst
of My Heart " Ps. xxxix. 7, 8, 9). Filial abandon
ment, which causes Him, in His agony at
Gethsemani, to exclaim : " Father, not My will,
but Thine be done," in all this terrible Passion
which unfolds itself before Me! Complete
abandonment draws from His lips, at the con
summation of His sacrifice, those words : " It
is consummated. Father, into Thy hands I com
mend My spirit." Dispose of Me, and of all My
sufferings, according to Thy designs and for the
completion of Thy work.
The PRACTICAL CONCLUSION may be gathered
from the three principal points indicated in the
reflections.
TENTH DAY
LIFE OF FRIENDSHIP WITH THE HEART OF
JESUS, ACCORDING TO THE TEACHING OF
ST. GERTRUDE
ONE day Our Lord drew St. Mechtilde's
attention to her sister Gertrude, who
apparently accomplished all her acts in His
presence, frequently raising her eyes to His
sweet face, and finding abundant light and grace
in her loving intercourse with Him. Mechtilde
wondering at this spectacle, Jesus said to her :
" My chosen one, as you see, lives always with
Me, and seeks only to fulfil the good pleasure of
My Heart. As soon as she knows My wish
on one point she fulfils it immediately, and then
tries to find out My further desires, that she may
satisfy them at once. Thus all her life is spent
in loving and pleasing Me with the most perfect
friendship."
REFLECTIONS. — Love alone renders our path
easy. To live in friendship with Jesus gladdens
the heart, and enables us to run in the way
of the commandments. This was St. Gertrude's
life, and this is the great teaching of her book.
It is, in fine, the dearest wish of the Heart of
Jesus, and the sweetest consolation we can offer
Him.
Now, in what consists this life of friendship
with Jesus ? " Friendship," says St. Thomas.
63
64 Love, Peace, and Joy
" consists in a mutual affection founded on a
communication of goods." In the first place,
then, we must render to the Heart of Jesus love
for love. O Jesus, Thy Heart loves me ; I
see it clearly in every way. It is consumed by
love. Thou wilt have it represented as crowned
with flames, to show us that it is a furnace of
love. Notwithstanding my infidelities, Thou
lovest me to such an extent that if my heart
contained a mere portion of this love it would
at once burst asunder. And I also, I love Thee.
I give myself to Thee — to Thee Who art love
itself. Without fear, without reserve, I aban
don myself for ever to Thy love. What have
I to fear ? My confidence, strengthened by
the thought that Thou art my Friend, will for
ever be unshaken.
I shall expect all from Thee, my Friend,
knowing that Thy riches and Thy power are
equal to Thy goodness. Weak though I may
be, I shall become, as it were, all-powerful, for
I can do all by Thy love, which gives me
strength.
Such is mutual friendship. It is founded,
as we have said, on a communication of goods.
Jesus has given me all, and I give all to
Him.
" All that I have is thine " — Omnia mea tua
sunt — has He said to me. He must also be
able to say : " All that thou hast is Mine " — Et
tua mea sunt. He has given me His life, His
labours, His merits, His blood, His Divine
Heart ; He gives me His body, His soul, His
Divinity ; He wishes to give me His glory, His
happiness, His eternity. I must also give
Him in return my life in all its details, my
heart with all its affections, my soul with all
Tenth Day 65
its powers, myself and all I have, for time
and for eternity.
The exchange ought to be complete. And
do I not gain everything by it ? " Yes, Lord,
take all and give all. Take all my miseries,
since, indeed, I possess nothing else ; then give
me all Thou wilt of Thy riches, to make me like
Thee, amiable and loving, that Thy Heart may
rejoice in loving me as tmich as It desires, and
seeing Itself loved by me as much as It has a
right to expect." Furthermore, according to the
Angelic Doctor, where friendship is perfect,
one friend must make all his happiness con
sist in living with the other — " Convivit de-
lectabiliter." Jesus fulfils this condition so
thoroughly ! He finds all His delight in living
with the children of men. He will remain with
us till the end of time. " His eyes and His
Heart remain always in our midst" He ever
dwells in our tabernacles, to be our companion
through life.
" 0 Lord, may I place all my happiness in
remaining with Thee. One thing alone I desire,
and I ask it from Thy love — viz., to dwell always
close to Thee, in body or at least in heart ; to
behold Thy Eucharistic beauty and glory ; to feed
ever on Thy love ; to pass my days and nights,
as far as Thou dost wish, in blessing, in loving
and contemplating Thee /"
The last condition of friendship is to share,
by the deepest sympathy, every pleasure and
affliction of the one we love, and have but one
heart with him — " Concordat cum ipso" Jesus has
fulfilled this condition admirably. He has taken
our human heart, and made Himself one Heart
with us ; He has espoused all the interests of
humanity in becoming man ; He has taken all
5
66 Love, Peace, and Joy
our sorrows on Himself ; He feels by sympathy
all our joys more keenly than we do ourselves.
Oh, may it be the same with me, dear Lord !
May my sentiments be guided entirely by Thine,
and may there be between Thy Will and mine,
not only union, but unity. O Jesus, may
Thy Heart be my heart, Thy sorrows my
sorrows, Thy joys my joys ! O friendship !
O union ! O unity ! May I leave myself entirely
to go unto Jesus : He is my Centre, He is my
All ! 0 Jesus, Thou in me and I in Thee !
May we be united for ever, now and in eternity !
This life of friendship was truly the whole
life of Gertrude, and in every line of her book
the Heart of Jesus seeks only to draw us to that
life. One day, as she was reading in public
on the commandment, " Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with
thy whole soul, and with all thy strength,"
one of the Sisters, struck by her loving accent*
said to Our Lord : " How much, 0 my God,
Thou art loved by Gertrude, who teaches us with
such ardour how we too ought to love Thee !"
And Jesus answered : " From childhood I
guarded and prepared her for My friendship,
and preserved her pure till the day when of her
own free-will she united herself to Me. Then I
gave Myself entirely to her. ... And now, with
full delight, I repose in her heart. Love has
united her inseparably to Me, as fire unites gold
and silver to form a precious combination."
Gertrude gave all to Jesus, Who was able to
say of her with delight, " She has given Me all
she has, without any reserve, for the salvation of
the world" and He, in return, gave all to her —
His Divine Heart, which became the heart of
Gertrude ; His sacred wounds, which He im-
Tenth Day 67
pressed on her ; His merits, which she used at
her will ; His almighty power, of which she could
dispose as a sovereign.
All the life of Gertrude was passed under the
eye of Jesus, as we have seen at the beginning.
She found no pleasure but in Him. " I find
nothing on earth in which I can take pleasure,"
said she to Jesus, " except Thee alone, my Lord,
Who art full of sweetness." And Jesus an
swered her : " And I find no delight in Heaven
or on earth without thee, because I have associated
thee by love to all My joys, so that I enjoy no
satisfaction apart from thee, and the greater My
satisfaction, the greater will the fruit be for thee."
Thus the heart of Gertrude became for Jesus
an agreeable abode, where He found His delight,
and loved to rest both day and night. And
He, too, gave His Divine Heart to her in a very
especial manner. They had, as it were, one heart
in the most complete sympathy.
What the Heart of Jesus wishes, as we have
said, most from us is this life of friendship.
He has opened His Heart to us for this purpose,
and will henceforth call us His friends. He
stands at the door of our heart and knocks :
" My child, give Me thy heart." He solicits us
with infinite tenderness ; He needs our love in
order that His own may be satisfied. We may
say that He begs for our love. Oh, let us give
Him what He desires ! Let us live with Him
that life of friendship which is so glorious for
God, since it is the triumph of His power, the
exaltation of His mercy. It is, at the same time,
so sweet and so fruitful for our souls, and enables
us so powerfully to obtain graces for our
brethren. " One only soul beloved by God"
said the Angels to St. Gertrude, " has more
68 Love, Peace, and Joy
influence over the Divine Heart than thousands
of others to obtain the conversion of the living
and the deliverance of the dead."
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Let us speak to
Jesus in our prayers as to a friend — "Amice
commoda mihi tres panis. Ecce quern amas " —
and we shall be entitled to expect all from His
affection — " ab amicis maxime speramus " (St.
Thomas).
2. Let us perform all our actions for Jesus,
our Friend, and remember that when we serve
our neighbour it is He Whom we serve — " mihi
fecistis."
3. In our sufferings let us keep with Jesus,
our Friend, and never forget that the Cross is
a gift of His love, the proof of our own; and
that His friendship will sweeten, ennoble, and
sanctify all our sufferings.
ELEVENTH DAY
LIFE OF TRUSTFUL ABANDONMENT TO
THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
E give an especial chapter to the life of
abandonment, as we have already done to
the life of desire, because abandonment is, I may
dare to say, the principal virtue of souls devoted
to the Sacred Heart. It is the especial charac
teristic of St. Gertrude's spirituality,* and the
practice which Our Lord seems to ask more than
any other from the enervated souls of the present
century.
By abandonment He offers them a means by
which they are enabled to participate in His
almighty power. He opens to them the treas
ures of His Heart, which undertakes to supply
for all the shortcomings of souls abandoned to
Him, and to perfect all their works. He makes
them docile instruments, who place no obstacle
to the action of God, and faithfully give Him the
glory in all.
Oh, may we, through the intercession of
St. Gertrude and the especial grace promised
to the friends of the Sacred Heart, fully realize
the infinite tenderness of the Heart of Jesus !
* " The Heart of Jesus," say the Benedictine
Fathers, translators of St. Gertrude, " reveals His
infinite mercy to St. Gertrude, and inspires her with
unlimited confidence, which is as an especial gift and a
characteristic of her spirituality"
69
70 Love, Peace, and Joy
He claims our confidence. May we ever, with
out fear or distrust, lovingly abandon ourselves
to Him, Who desires to be our strength, our
wisdom; and our love !
THE PRINCIPLE OF CONFIDING ABANDONMENT TO
THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Let us first consider the principles which Our
Lord inculcated with regard to this to the
beloved disciple of His Heart. They may be
reduced to two :
FIRST PRINCIPLE : CONFIDENCE BY ITSELF
CAN EASILY OBTAIN ALL IT REQUIRES.* — It was
the source of every grace to St. Gertrude. She
attributed to* it alone all those which she had
received, and invites the friends of the Heart
of Jesus to place boundless confidence in Him, in
order to receive from Him immeasurable grace.
One day, when she was praying for the
salvation of a prodigious number of sinners,
not daring to speak of reprobate souls, Our
Lord first reproached her gently for having, by
thus placing bounds to her confidence, put limits
also to His Divine mercy ; then, after she had
worded her petition according to the infinite
mercy of His Heart, as she begged to know
what she should do to obtain this immense
grace, He answered her, " Confidence by itself
can easily obtain all things," and He granted all
* In this there is question only of confidence inspired
by grace and regulated by the Will of God. Let us
also remember that the efficacy attributed to confi
dence, to desire, and to union, must not be understood
in an absolute sense, but only in proportion to our
dispositions and to our co-operation. Far be it from
us to entertain any presumptuous illusion.
Eleventh Day 71
that Gertrude's confidence had hoped from His
goodness.*
St. Mechtilde repeats several times : "It is
impossible that anyone should not receive all
that he had believed and hoped he would obtain."
" Therefore" adds Our Lord, when incul
cating to her this truth, " it gives Me real
pleasure when men hope great things from Me,
and I will always grant them more than they
expect"^
SECOND PRINCIPLE : BY CONFIDING ABAN
DONMENT, THE SOUL MERITS THAT JESUS SHOULD
SUPPLY IN ALL THINGS FOR HER.—" Dost thou
not think" said Our Lord to St. Mechtilde*
* St. Gertrude attributed in the same way to
the exceeding confidence of St. John, the beloved
Apostle of the Sacred Heart, the wonderful graces
he had received from his Divine friend, particularly
that of having been called to Him without under
going the horrors of death, and of seeing his virginal
body already admitted to the glory of Heaven.1 She
at first attributed these favours to the virginity
of John and to the martyrdom of compassion which
he had endured at the foot of the Cross ; but Jesus
Christ told her that they had been granted to him
as a reward for the assured confidence with which
he had expected them from His boundless tenderness.
The love which had inspired him with this audacity
merited to see itself crowned with success.
t Our Lord adds : "To him who shows Me this
friendly confidence, I will give a grateful, loving heart,
a heart full of My Divine praise." What a kind and
consoling promise !
1 The tradition that St. John the Evangelist was
translated to Heaven without dying, body and soul,
here repeated by St. Gertrude, had some currency
among the early Fathers, but was confuted by St.
Jerome and St. Augustine, and the best supported
opinion is that he died a natural death (cf. Butler, A Lives
of the Saints," December 27, and Maldonatus, "In Joan,"
xxi. 22).
72 Love, Peace, and Joy
" that I am sufficiently rich to pay all thy debts ?"
" Yes, Lord," she answered ; "I trust every
thing to Thee." Jesus then said : " See, then,
how I offer to God, My Father, the years of My
childhood, to supply for what thou wert unable
to do during thy early years ; the labours of My
youth, for the negligences of thine ; My later
years and My Passion, for the faults and omissions
of thy whole life. Thus, I wish thy entire life
to receive in Me and by Me its supplement and its
perfection."
This is the most touching commentary of
those words of Holy Scripture : " Complevit
labores illius " — she, i.e., Wisdom, accomplished
his labours* Oh, tenderness, oh, liberality of
the Heart of Jesus, our Friend ! He wishes to
complete our works Himself, and to give our
life its last perfection. He ardently desires to
do so ; it is for Him a real joy, for in this consists
the triumph of His love and the glory of His
mercy. The one thing He asks from us for this
is that we trust in Him, abandon ourselves to
His goodness, and leave the rest to Him. Oh
yes, now and for ever, in all and for all, confi
dence in and abandonment to the Heart of
Jesus, that He may deign to complete our task,
and render full and perfect the measure of glory
and of consolation which He expects from us !
THREE LESSONS GIVEN BY THE HEART OF JESUS
TO ST. GERTRUDE WITH REGARD TO CON
FIDING ABANDONMENT
I. One day, when St. Gertrude felt quite cast
down and discouraged at prayer, Our Lord
* Wisd. x. io.
Eleventh Day 73
mercifully inspired her with great confidence
in His Divine Heart, and, inviting her to present
herself before Him, like Esther before Assueras,
He thus addressed her : " What dost thou com
mand, My sovereign ?" The Saint answered :
" / ask, 0 Lord, that Thy most amiable Will
may he fully acGomplished in me." Then Jesus,
naming to her one after another the persons
who had recommended themselves to her
prayers, said : " What dost thou ask for this soul
and for this, and for that other, who claim more
especially thy prayers ?" Gertrude answered :
" / only ask, 0 Lord, that Thy Will may be
perfectly accomplished in them. All my desire
and my delight is to see Thee fully satisfied in
me and in all Thy creatures.'' " My Heart"
replied Jesus, " is so touched with that confiding
abandonment of thy heart to My holy Will, that
it will itself supply for whatever may have hitherto
been wanting in thy life in this respect, and will
henceforth love thee as if thy whole life had been
perfectly conformed to My good pleasure."
Let us also desire only the accomplishment
of the Will of God in ourselves and in others ; in
our own affairs and in those of the Church ;
in our works of zeal and in all that we have at
heart. Let us hope with confidence to obtain
by our fidelity in abandonment a mercy like
that which St. Gertrude obtained from the
Heart of Jesus — viz., that He Himself may
deign Jo repair all that has been wanting in us
in this respect, and accept all our past prayers
as if they had been in perfect conformity with
His holy Will ; all our past actions as if they
had been performed only to accomplish His
desires?; and all our past sufferings as if they
had^been accepted with perfect resignation.
74 Love, Peace, and Joy
2. One night, when St. Gertrude was suffering
more than usual from fever, she felt anxious
to know whether it would increase or get better.
The Lord Jesus appeared to her, carrying
health in His right hand and sickness in His
left. He offered her both hands, that she might
choose that which she preferred. But putting
aside His two hands, she bent towards His
loving Heart, hi which she knew the plenitude
of every good resided, and answered : " Lord,
I choose nothing ; I desire, only the good pleasure
of Thy Heart." Then Jesus, causing a fountain,
as it were, of grace to spring from His Heart,
made it flow into that of Gertrude, saying :
" Since thou renouncest thy own will to abandon
it entirely unto Mine, I pour into thee all the
sweetness and all the joy of My Divine Heart"
What an instructive and encouraging example !
Let us choose nothing ; let us ask nothing ; but
abandon ourselves in all confidence to the all-
wise and all-loving will of our best friend.
He will choose what is most advantageous for
us, and will at the same time fill us with the
sweet joy of His Heart ; for no joy can be greater
for a creature than to give pleasure to His
Creator, to be guided by His most amiable Will,
and to confide all to His watchful Providence.
3. One year, for the Feast of the Circum
cision, St. Gertrude asked Our Lord for spiritual
New Year's gifts for the members of her com
munity. Jesus answered her : " If anyone will
generously renounce his own will to seek only My
good pleasure, My Divine*' Heart will illuminate
him with a vivid light to know My wishes. 1
will show him in what he has failed with regard
to his Rule, which is the expression of My Will,
and will atone with him for all his shortcomings.
Eleventh Day 75
Like a good, master instructing a dearly loved
child, I will let him lean on My Heart, will gently
point out to him his faults, will kindly correct
what he has done amiss, and supply what he has
neglected. And if, as a heedless child, he pays
no attention to some points, I will attend to them
for him, and make up what he has passed over.
The New Year's gift most conducive to My
glory that I can bestow on these souls is the desire
to please Me in all things, and confiding abandon
ment to My Divine Heart. I will grant them,
with the atonement for all their failures of the past
year, light and strength to conform themselves
henceforward entirely to My holy Will."
Let us take to ourselves this luminous and
consoling lesson. Let us wish only for the
good pleasure of the Heart of Jesus, and then
let us ask Him with confidence to repair all for
us — our failures^ our negligences, our omissions.
Thus, by confiding abandonment we may be
able to obtain that all the years of our re
ligious life shall have the same value in His
sight as if we had observed our Rule perfectly,
since He will mercifully supply for all our short
comings.
The same thing may be said of every task
marked out to us by His Providence which
we desire to accomplish perfectly. Confiding
abandonment to His merciful goodness will
always be the best means for obtaining our
success.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — Confiding abandon
ment — to give ourselves to the Heart of Jesus
through love, with all confidence, and without
fear or reserve.
TWELFTH DAY
LIFE OF CONFIDING ABANDONMENT TO THE
SACRED HEART OF JESUS— Continued
ADMIRABLE FRUITS OF CONFIDING ABANDON
MENT TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
BY this confiding abandonment we de
serve —
1. That He will pay all our past debts.
2. That He will perfect all our works in the
present time.
3. That He will prepare for us for the future
an ever-increasing abundance of grace, for the
glory of God and the salvation of souls.
i. We have three debts to pay : debt of atone
ment for all our faults ; debt of gratitude for
graces received ; debt of charity towards God
and man, according to that word of St. Paul :
" Nemini quidquam debeatis nisi ut invicem
diligatis " — Owe no man anything, but to love one
another (Rom. xiii. 8). We incur this debt
by our failures and shortcomings in the duty
we owe to God and to our neighbour. If we
leave the debt of atonement to Our Lord, He
will pay it out of the treasures of His Heart,
as we have seen above.
The debt of gratitude, which St. Gertrude
was so wishful to pay entirely, as may be seen
76
Twelfth Day 77
in so many places, where she calls to her aid
the thanksgivings of all creatures, of those
especially who may read her book in future
times, is paid for us by Jesus through the
thanksgivings of His Eucharistic Heart,; as
He paid it for St. Gertrude, particularly with
regard to the debt of gratitude she owed to
Our Blessed Lady.
Finally, our debt of charity. This Our Lord
will also acquit, "in drawing from the riches of
His Heart treasures, both new and old " — that is
to say, His own merits and those of His Church^
both in the Old and in the New Testament.
These will more than satisfy for all our failures
and shortcomings in His service.
2. With regard to the present, be it prayers,
actions, or sacrifices, Jesus will complete all
in such a manner that nothing will be wanting,
especially in the six following points, which he
will fill up for us, as He filled the six water-pots
of Cana, " usque ad summum,"to the very brim.
(i) Our Faults. — He covers them over by
the merits of His holy life, as He showed St.
Gertrude, and makes them serve for our ad
vancement, by the practice of humility and
by our efforts to correct them. He wishes to
make them contribute, in an admirable way,
to the glory and consolation of His Heart, by
teaching us to atone for them with the intention
of atoning at the same time for the faults of
our brethren throughout the whole world. Let
us offer Him these faults with a free and full
confidence* that so He may utilize them accord
ing to His merciful designs. He looks upon
them (in a way) as if they were His own —
" Verba delictorum meorum " — The words of My
sins (Ps. xxi. 2) — since we are one with Him,
78 Love, Peace, and Joy
and He undertakes to draw from them a large
amount of good, according to the hopes we have
placed in Him : " Misericordia quemadmodum
speravimus " — Mercy according as we have hoped
in Thee.
(2) Our Failures. — St. Gertrude had implored
one of her Sisters to beg Our Lord to correct her
failures. The Sister received from Him the
following answer : " Just as a field covered with
manure becomes in consequence more fertile, so
the knowledge which Gertrude has of her failures
makes her gather fruits of grace much more
delicious. Besides, I hide them by the abun
dance of My gifts, and in time will transform
them into as many virtues."
The Heart of Jesus will act in the same way
with all His friends, for He is careful about His
own interests and those of His Church^ to
which our shortcomings seem detrimental.
Leave him. to act ; He will remedy all. Only
let us humble ourselves each time we are aware
of our failures, earnestly endeavour to correct
ourselves, and then confidence and abandon
ment ! He will, by the bestowal of other gifts,
prevent any loss that might result from them,
and little by little, if we leave Him to act, He
will transform them into virtues. But let us
remember, we must leave Him free to act.
Our troubles, our agitations, our vexations
perhaps, and our impatience with ourselves,
impede the work of His mercy, and do us much
more harm than our failures themselves.
Abandonment and confidence ! Let the work
go on ! Let the work go on !
(3) Our Negligences. — We have seen in several
places how Jesus undertakes to repair all our
negligences with regard to love, praise, zeal,
Twelfth Day 79
etc., in proportion to our confidence in Him,
and we have already meditated that consoling
word of Our Lord to St. Mechtilde : " Prefer far
more that My love repair thy negligences rather
than thyself, in order that all the honour and
glory may redound to Me."
(4) Our Omissions. — The good Master has
taught us above how He wishes to supply for
them.
(5) Our Incapacities. — Let us remember with
regard to these Our Lord's recommendation to
St. Gertrude : " / give thee My Heart, that it
may supply for all thy incapacities. . . . Make
use of it, and thy works will charm the eye and
the ear of the Divinity."
(6) Our Inutilities. — Even the time we pass
in sleep and our early years, before we had
attained the use of reason, Our Lord deigns to
utilize in applying to them the merits of His
life, provided we offer them to Him with
confidence, as we have seen above.
In a word, Jesus takes a fatherly care of our
interests, which are one with His. Let us cast
all our cares into His Divine Heart, and He will
take charge of them. Leave all to Him, and
we shall want for nothing. Let us abandon our
selves, with full confidence, to His all-wise,
all-beneficent Providence, and He will make
everything tend to the accomplishment of His
merciful designs over us.
3. In fine, with regard to the future, if we
have entirely abandoned ourselves to Our Lord,
so that He may do as He wills with us, for the
accomplishment of His designs, He will render
us prodigies of grace^ in order to compensate
Himself for so many hearts which close them
selves against His gifts and bind the arms of
8o Love, Peace, and Joy
His mercy. For He is essentially a good, dif
fusive of Himself. His love has need to love ;
His goodness seeks to bestow. Let us trust
and abandon ourselves. His love for us will
ever increase, His liberality be greater every
day, until He is able to crown us in His
mercy.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — St. Thomas says :
" Confidence is hope strengthened by any con
viction " — Fiducia est spes roborata ex aliqua
convictione: Deum esse meum amicum.
Hence confidence is the certain fruit of
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, since
this devotion necessarily makes us His devoted
friends.
Through the following means we may, by
successive degrees, attain the full measure of
confidence which Our Lord expects from us :
i. VIRTUE OF CONFIDENCE. — It may have
several degrees.
(1) Faith.— My God, I trust in Thee, to
obtain both grace and glory, according to the
teachings of our holy Faith.
(2) Circumstances arranged by Providence. —
I trust in Thee, according as Thou dost show,
by these arrangements of Thy Providence, that
Thou desirest me to do so — for example, in
imposing this charge on me, Thou wishest me
to trust to Thee for strength to fulfil it ; in
placing me among edifying companions, Thou
wiliest me to trust to Thee for grace to profit
of their example.
(3) The Attraction of Grace. — I trust in Thee
as far as I am drawn by Thy grace : for ex
ample, this morning at Holy Communion
Thou didst inspire me to advance in humility ;
I trust entirely to Thee for grace to do so,
Twelfth Day 81
knowing "that He Who hath begun a good work
(in me] will perfect it " (Phil. i. 6).
(4) The Will of God. — I wish to confide in
Thee, as entirely as Thou dost wish it Thyself.
(5) Indefinite Advance in Confidence. — In
crease in me without ceasing both faith and
confidence.
2. GIFT OF CONFIDENCE. — Grant me, O
Lord, for the sake of Thy glory, the especial
gift of confidence; which is above all virtue,
and the sweetest present Thou canst bestow
upon Thy devoted friends.
The virtue is in part the result of our own
efforts. The gift comes purely from God, and
St. Gertrude attributes her graces to the gift
of confidence rather than to the virtue.
3. STATE OF CONFIDENCE. — Lord, establish
me most firmly in the state of confidence,
which is the most glorious for Thee, and the
most profitable for Thy Church.
This state includes three dispositions :
(1) Pure Love. — I desire God alone, and for
get myself entirely.
(2) Pure Abandonment. — I abandon myself
without reserve to God, that He may do with
me absolutely whatever He may will.
(3) Pure Confidence. — Therefore I have full
confidence in Him, since it is He alone Who
works, both as end and as means, whilst I
completely disappear. He cannot be wanting
to Himself.
Thus is obtained that full degree of con
fidence to which nothing is wanting, and which
glorifies so immensely the Heart of Jesus in
allowing Him to accomplish in us and by us
the designs of His infinite mercy.
THIRTEENTH DAY
THE LIFE OF WORSHIP IN THE SACRED
HEART OF JESUS
WE may consider this life successively in
regard to the four ends of the Divine
Sacrifice, referring, however, the life of prayer
to the fouith day.
LIFE OF ADORATION
The Holy Spirit Who formed St. Gertrude so
carefully for religious perfection taught her,
above all, " to adore God by Jesus Christ,
which is the first and highest of all de
votions," and the Heart of Jesus, the perfect
Adorer of the Father, is always the Divine
organ through which she offers to God the
tribute of her adoration.
The Holy Spirit now, more than He has
ever done in times gone by, wishes to lead us
also to a life of adoration, and the Heart of
Jesus ardently desires to communicate to us
His own perfect sentiments in this regard.
" Venit hora et nunc est quando veri adoratores
adorabunt Pair em in spiritu et veritate " — The
hour now is when the true adorers shall adore the
Father in spirit and in truth (John iv. 23).
Nothing is more remarkable nor more consoling
82
Thirteenth Day 83
in the midst of the troubles of present times
than this diffusion of the grace of adoration,
this multiplication of works established and
religious institutions consecrated to it. This
comes, in the first place, from the diffusion of
the eucharistic spirit, which seems to be one
of the graces of these later times, and of which
adoration is the first and principal characteristic.
It comes also from the special need of our
century, when, revolt against God attaining its
limits, adoration, which is submission to Him,
should also spread to its uttermost bounds,
that atonement may be equal to the offence.
This is the reason why Divine Providence,
which in every period takes care to supply
the Church with remedies opposed to the evils
by which she is attacked, pours over her, in
present times, the spirit of adoration.
We ought, then, to broach the subject now
proposed for our meditations with an ardent
desire to profit by it, and with boundless con
fidence, for nothing is more calculated to excite
our desires and strengthen that confidence
than the thought : I know that I enter into
the designs of Providence, and conform myself
to the Will of God, which should regulate every
desire. I know that I place myself in the
actual stream of grace, which will bear me
gently along and make me abound in spiritual
gifts.
i. EUCHARISTIC ADORATION. — The eucharistic
soul ought to adore God in union with the
Heart of Jesus and by the Heart of Jesus
which is the model and organ of all perfect
adoration. The first act of sacrifice which
Jesus makes in descending on the altar, as He
formerly did when He came into the world, is
84 Love, Peace, and Joy
an act of adoration. " Behold, I come to do Thy
Will, 0 God " (St. Paul, Heb. x. 9). " / acknow
ledge Thee for my Creator and Sovereign Master,
and my heart submits itself entirely to Thee.
Thou hast given me my body, and all that I
possess. I come to sacrifice my whole being
unto Thee, in the acknowledgment of my entire
dependence."
Can the eucharistic soul do better than appro
priate to herself these sentiments of the Heart
of Jesus when He enters the sanctuary, in
order to recognize with Him and by Him the
sovereign domain of God, to submit to it with
her whole heart and abandon herself to it
without reserve ?
It is thus that our sacrifice ought to commence,
and if we feel ourselves powerless in the presence
of this infinite Majesty, let us make use of the
Heart of Jesus, which will supply for our
incapacity and offer for us to the Most High
its tribute of perfect adoration. Our Lord
places His Divine Heart at the disposal of the
eucharistic soul like a willing servant, as He
told St. Gertrude. He earnestly desires to
aid us in fulfilling our duties of religion to God.
It is a keen joy and a real glory to Him to
supply for what is wanting in us. Let us,
then, make use of His Sacred Heart, and we
may be certain that our acts of worship will
no longer be unworthy of the thrice holy God.
2. SOLEMN ADORATION WITH EXPOSITION OF
THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT. — This adora
tion seems to be the best suited to the eucha
ristic soul, because Jesus in the Sacred Host
thus manifests Himself in the most striking
way as the object, the model, and the organ of
our adorations. The works of adoration evi-
Thirteenth Day 85
dently adopt more and more this form of
devotion, and if in the last two centuries some
institutes were founded for adoration without
exposition, all those founded in the present
century have consecrated themselves to solemn
adoration with exposition. It is also with this
solemnity that the perpetual adoration, which
becomes more and more general, has been
established in several of our dioceses, and
already, for some centuries, the devotion of the
Forty Hours, which continues perpetually
in Rome, is always accompanied by exposition
of the Blessed Sacrament.
(1) This form, as we have said, more mani
festly reveals to us Jesus, the Sacred Host, as
the object of our adorations ; proposes Him
directly to our worship, and invites us by itself
to pay Him our homage. " Venite, procidamus
ante Deum ; venite, adoremus Dominum " — Come,
let us adore and fall down before the Lord
(Ps. xciv.).
In solemn exposition Jesus shows Himself
as the Divine Sun, from which we receive
light, warmth, and life ; as the King, crowned
with glory, to Whom we ought to submit.
He is on His throne, surrounded by honour and
majesty, receiving the worship of Angels, who
form His Court and who invite us to join our
adorations to theirs.
(2) But under this form Jesus still remains
the same model of our adorations, because He
is ever the Hidden Victim, sacrificing, humbling,
annihilating Himself. This is perfect adora
tion. Let the eucharistic soul gaze on the
model shown her from on high and resplendent
in her sight. Midst the graces lavished on her
by God, the lights which He has poured into
86 Love, Peace, and Joy
her, she will feel that her duty is to remain
always hidden, to sacrifice herself entirely to
the Divine Majesty from Whom she has re
ceived all, to humble herself in proportion to
the gifts bestowed upon her, and to annihilate
herself in the most perfect submission, the most
absolute dependence.
In the same manner, with regard to her
brethren whom she represents before Jesus, or
rather with Jesus Himself, she will feel that
she has only one thing to do — viz., to imitate
the Divine Saviour, Who always remains as a
Victim to intercede in their favour ; Who
humbles Himself for them, and makes Himself
their slave ; Who, for their sake, becomes
obedient in the Holy Eucharist in a more
touching manner than on Calvary ; annihilates
Himself for them more profoundly than on the
Cross, in order to be always Jesus, their Saviour.
Let the eucharistic soul unite herself to these
sentiments, and offer them without ceasing to
God for her brethren, through the eucharistic
Heart of Jesus.
(3) Jesus, the Sacred Host, solemnly exposed,
offers Himself to us in a most especial manner,
to be the organ of the worship we wish to pay
to God in the name of the whole Church, since
in this public adoration He appears as the
Pontiff and Victim of her universal worship.
He is there to adore God in the name of all.
The eucharistic soul has only to unite herself
to Him, and by His Divine Heart she can offer
to God all the homage of the most perfect
religion for herself and for her brethren.
Our Lord had inspired St. Gertrude with a
great devotion to gaze on Him thus exposed to
view in the Sacred Host. This was one of her
Thirteenth Day 87
favourite .practices, and _one day the good
Master said to her, in reference to this: "Each
time that anyone thus looks lovingly at the Host,
which contains sacramentally My Divine Body,
he will increase his merits for Heaven, and add to
his eternal joys an especial delight, corresponding
to that with which he devoutly contemplated this
precious Body on earth."
3. NOCTURNAL ADORATION. — For souls de
voted to the Sacred Heart, there is a very
especial joy in adoring Him and offering Him
their worship during the silence of night, when
He is forgotten by others. This joy was fore
seen by the Royal Prophet when he rose during
the night to adore his Lord, and manifested
also by the Apostle, when, as Holy Scripture
tells us, the gaoler found him in his prison
singing the praises of Jesus Christ with his
companion, in the midst of darkness.
In like manner, the love of the eucharistic
soul knows no repose. Her heart is ever
watching, even during those hours which Nature
has consecrated to sleep. Her desire to honour
Jesus never fails, night or day, voluntas ejus
permanet die ac node, and her worship of
the eucharistic God is perpetual. Yes, truly
perpetual, for she has associated herself with
others, by whom she is replaced when obliged to
absent herself from before the Tabernacle, and
Jesus Himself, the Sacred Host, placing Him
self in the midst of those souls, reunited in His
name, joins with them, watches with and for
them, and perfects their work of adoration.
Like to the strong woman of the Scripture,
the soul devoted to the Holy Eucharist " hath
tasted and seen that her traffic is good: her
lamp shall not be put out in the night" — Gus-
88 Love, Peace, and Joy
tavit, et vidit quia bona est negotiatio ejus : non
extinguetur in node lucerna ejus (Prov. xxxi. 18).
She works continually for the interests of the
Church, which is her family, and for the glory
of her Divine Spouse. Who could tell what
fruits of salvation she produces by this inde
fatigable labour, what riches she amasses for
the ransom of souls by this continual supplica
tion ! Hence the Heart of Jesus trusts to her.
She glorifies Him both day and night, and the
Divine Spouse prepares for her inexpressible
joys for the last day. And on examining this
subject from a theological point of view,
nocturnal adoration gives an especial glory to
the God of the Eucharist for several reasons.
The worship He receives is offered in a more
profound recollection when all Nature is in
silence. The chants of praise are more pleasing
to Him when a portion of one's repose is sacri
ficed to contemplete His perfections and cele
brate His bounties. We thus, to a certain
degree, imitate the citizens of Heaven, who,
according to the beloved Apostle, serve God
day and night in His temple. We repair by
this meritorious work the disorders of the
world, which consecrates the hours of night to
gambling and intemperance, and the Heart of
Jesus must feel a sweet joy in seeing before
Him souls gathered together to console Him at
a time when others outrage Him the most.
In fine, the zeal of those ancient solitaries who
in their deserts kept up a continual psalmody
is thus perpetuated, as much as possible, in
Christianity.* O eucharistic soul, raise, then,
your hands during the night to the Saint of
Saints ! Bless Him, invoke Him for us all.
* V. Bertier, "Psalms" (Ps. xxxiii).
Thirteenth Day 89
Adore Him in the presence of His Angels;
repair the sins committed against Him, while
the Sacred Host is thus raised between earth
and Heaven, in order continually to draw down
mercy upon the guilty world !
4. PERPETUAL ADORATION. — Let us apply to
perpetual adoration what we have said about
nocturnal adoration, which is only its com
pletion.
The happiness of the eucharistic soul is
complete when she can offer to Our Lord, with
her associates, a perpetual worship, never in
terrupted by day or by night. She thus repeats
without cessation the Sanctus which the angels
sing in Heaven, and, even in this life, anticipates
the eternal adorations which she will, ere long,
offer to the Most High with the Heavenly Court.
FOURTEENTH DAY
LIFE OF ADORATION— Continued
5. A DORATION OF REPARATION. — Every
^~\_ act of adoration is one of atonement,
whether it is in a general way, or, in particular,
as it regards eucharistic adoration.
(1) Taking it in general, adoration, con
sisting in the acknowledgment of our depend
ence upon God and our entire submission to
Him, is consequently directly opposed to sin,
which is essentially an act of independence
and revolt against Him. Non serviam — I will
not serve ; Adorabo — I will adore. These are
the two opposite terms ; therefore they who
adore in spirit and in truth repair sin directly
and efficaciously ; and if the adoration is public
and solemn, the reparation becomes equally
public and solemn. This is the principle on
which the adoration of the Forty Hours has been
instituted — that devotion which has been
carried on for so long in the Church to repair
publicly, and with solemnity, the sins com
mitted by the world against Our Lord.
(2) But, as we have already seen, since it is
above all in the Divine Eucharist that the
majesty and the love of our God are outraged,
the atonement most required for His glory
and the salvation of the world will be found
90
Fourteenth Day 91
in eucharistic adoration. Where outrage is
most odious, there adoration must show itself
most intense. Where iniquity multiplies its
offences, there adoration must multiply its
worship, its solemn festivals, and the splendour
of its services. And taking another point of
view, here again is manifested one of the great
duties of the eucharistic soul, one of the neces
sary tasks which she ought to accomplish in
silence and humility. Precisely because she
has to atone for the outrages , committed by
pride, she ought to humble herself more pro
foundly. Abasement and obedience unto death
can alone offer a worthy satisfaction to the
Divine Majesty, against which our century
revolts with such audacity.
6. THE COMPANIONS OF THE ADORING SOUL. —
Our Lord had confided St. Gertrude, in a very
especial manner, to the Choir of Dominations,
that they might assist her in the life of adora
tion. These celestial intelligences one day said
to her : " As regal honour loves judgment, and
as love, impelled by its ardour, ignores the
curb of reason, each time that the King of
glory abases Himself to your soul, and your
soul in return plunges itself into Him by a
transport of love, we adore Him in your name;
and offer Him, for you, the worship due to His
greatness, in order that His sovereign glory
may lose nothing from the familiarity which
He allows you."
Let us ask these dear companions of the
adoring soul to help us also in the worship we
ought to pay to the King of kings ; to inspire
us with their sentiments of profound respect,
and associate us to the homage they render
Him.
92 Love, Peace, and Joy
The Church makes us invoke them at Holy
Mass, just before the God of the Eucharist
descends on the altar, in order that they may
help us to receive Him with the honour which
is His due, and adore Him like the Angels who
surround that altar : adorant Dominationes.
7. THE JOYS OF THE LIFE OF ADORATION. —
This life is itself, for a soul able to comprehend,
a life full of joy, order, and peace ; for it is a
life entirely consecrated to the good pleasure
of God, dependent on His holy Will, and aban
doned to His Sovereign dominion. Now, the
pleasure of God is joy itself ; His Will is perfect
order ; His Sovereign domain is the reign of
peace.
If we recite simply, but seriously and with
sincerity, the popular act of adoration, we shall
find in it all these different sentiments and
dispositions.
" 0 my God, I willingly recognize Thee for
my Creator and Sovereign Lord ; I rejoice in
Thee, Who art the source of all good, and in
Thy Divinity, which is the infinite source of
infinite perfections. Oh yes, with my whole
heart I submit myself entirely to Thee ; I
abandon myself without reserve to Thy power,
Thy wisdom, and Thy goodness, and place
myself for ever under the influence of Thy love,
which is goodness itself, all joy and all peace."
These sentiments become more intense when
expressed to Jesus Himself exposed on the
altar, when we feel, as it were, the echo of the
sentiments of His own Heart, and can say to
ourselves : "By my adoration I am about to
increase joy, order, and peace around Jesus
and by Jesus, in Jesus Himself and in His
members. I enter into the joy of my Master ;
Fourteenth Day 93
He establishes me in His peace ; He ordains
in me His charity. I rejoice Him, and He
rejoices me. I appease His anger, and He calms
my troubles. I dispel as far as I am able
the evils which are the cause of so much suffer
ing to Him. In me and by me I make Him live
and reign in love and in joy."
8. THE VIRTUES OF THE ADORING SOUL.—
By the life of adoration the eucharistic soul
enters into the practice of the three virtues so
eminently glorious to God, and which con
stitute the highest perfection — namely, the love
of complacency towards God, abandonment to
God, dependence upon God.
(1) This soul delights in acknowledging God
for her Creator and her Master^ from Whom
she has received all that she has ; for the perfect
Being to Whom she is indebted for all that she
is. Now, is not this true love of complacency
towards God, considering Him thus as the
Sovereign Good in Himself and the source of
all good to us ?
(2) Adoration ought also to lead to the com
plete abandonment of ourselves to God ; we
submit entirely to His Sovereign domain, and
this submission, if sincere and without reserve,
whether for body or for soul, for mind or will,
for time or for eternity, must necessarily result
in the practice of complete abandonment.
(3) Hence it leads us to place ourselves so
entirely under the hand of God that He can
dispose of us as He wills, and that His Holy
Spirit can, without any obstacle, guide us in
all, and become the one primary agent of our
actions. Had we not reason to say that this
state is the most glorious for God and that of
the greatest perfection for ourselves ?
94 Love, Peace, and Joy
Oh may the adoring soul advance with ardour
in the practice of those three virtues which
constitute the highest sanctity of Christian life !
The God of the Blessed Eucharist desires to
grant them to her in full measure for His glory
and the consolation of His Sacred Heart.
Jesus is so happy to see at His feet a soul who
places all her delight in Him ; one who abandons
herself entirely to Him, and of whom He can
dispose at His will. He will make her a prodigy
of grace, to compensate for the continual re
sistance He meets with in other souls.
" Courage, good and faithful servant" He
seems to say ; " enter fully into the joy of Thy
Lord. Since thou hast left all for me, I will
be everything to thee ; enter into the powers of
thy God. Into that of the Father, by perfect
abandonment; into the jubilation of the Word,
by union with the praises of Jesus Christ, thy
Head ; into the love of the Holy Ghost, by union
with that Divine Spirit Who abides in Thee.
Live in abandonment, praise and love!" Thus
the life of adoration associates us with the
power of God, makes us, as it were, one joy,
one love with Him.
9. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR ADORATION.
— (i) The Throne for Exposition of the Blessed
Sacrament. — The Holy Spirit, in that canticle
so especially one of adoration^ praise, and love,
teaches us an admirable method of rendering
to Jesus in the Eucharist the public and solemn
worship of adoration. Let us first of all raise
a throne where He may be exposed to the eyes
of all and receive our homage. This throne,
made of the wood of Libanus, is, in a mystical
sense, the immaculate heart and the arms of
the Blessed Virgin, His Mother, which alone
Fourteenth Day 95
are worthy to expose Jesus to our sight and
offer Him to our worship. The columns sup
porting this throne are of silver, and symbolize
the preaching or the public worship which
should lead the souls of our brethren to Jesus
in the Eucharist : " the going up of purple"
because the blood of expiation, of penance, of
mortification, is necessary to raise us up to
Jesus, the seat of gold, for He reposes in charity,
which is figured by gold. The throne is covered
with tapestry worked by the daughters of Jeru
salem, in which are represented different figures,
which symbolize the Saviour's love for our souls.
What a happiness for us to work at these
columns, these steps, these mystical coverings !
After having thus prepared the throne on which
Jesus deigns to receive our adorations, we will
invite the daughters of Sion (the souls of our
brethren) to come and contemplate (with us) the
true Solomon, the Prince of Peace, in the diadem
wherewith His Mother crowned Him on the
day of His espousals and in the day of the joy of
His Heart. We will take delight in crowning Him
with honour and glory ; we will proclaim Him
King of mercy, King of love ; we will celebrate
His spiritual nuptials with our souls, and insure
to His most loving Heart a day of perfect joy.
(2) Adoration at all Hours. — Our Lord had
asked the Blessed Margaret Mary not to pass
any hour of the day without coming to adore
Him in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
One can, with less inconvenience than at first
would seem inevitable, manage to accomplsh
this practice of tender love, which is so rich in
graces.
In holy religion the rule itself may lead us at
several hours of the day before the Blessed
96 Love, Peace, and Joy
Sacrament. With regard to the remaining
hours, it suffices to go for a moment towards
the end of one hour, and this short adoration
will serve at the same time for the following
one. We can always go, at least in desire,
and ask our Angel guardian to do so effectively
in our name. Oh, how fidelity to this kind of
perpetual adoration pleases the Heart of Jesus !
He says to the soul who is thus always with
Him : " My child, thou art ever with Me, and
all that I have is thine." Oh, who could tell
what treasures of grace are opened to us by
this word ?
(3) Jesus Adorer for us. — St. Mechtilde, as
we have seen, having said to Our Lord, " I would
wish to adore Thee in the name of all creatures"
Jesus answered her : " 7, Who am the centre of
all creatures, the Priest of the whole creation,
offer to God, as if from thee, this universal adora
tion in the name of all "
With this we conclude our words on perfect
adoration.
FIFTEENTH DAY
LIFE OF THANKSGIVING
LET us here finish what we have elsewhere
said of thanksgiving, and not fear to
insist on this virtue, in which St. Gertrude
especially excelled. Thanksgiving is the first
fruit that Our Lord invites us to draw from His
Divine Heart, and it will be the last hymn the
Church will chant with Him at the end of
time.
I. HOW MUCH THE EUCHARISTIC SOUL SHOULD
EXCEL IN THE PRACTICE OF THANKSGIVING. —
Her title alone will remind her of this, since
Eucharist means thanksgiving. Jesus, in in
stituting the Divine Eucharist, wished to multi
ply His thanksgivings to His Father as many
times as there would be Hosts consecrated
throughout the world, and in uniting us to
Himself in the eucharistic life, He would make
our hearts the echo of His own infinite gratitude
for Himself and for us. To respond fully to
His intentions, the life of the eucharistic soul
ought to be one of continual thanksgiving.
Our Lord takes pleasure in making known to
her. in the intimacy of prayer, all the mysteries
of His love for her and for sinners, and invites
her to unite with Him in paying, in the name
97 7
98 Love, Peace, and Joy
of all, that debt of gratitude which nearly every
one forgets.
Let her, then, be grateful like the Heart of
Jesus and by the Heart of Jesus, that in union
with Him she may be, in the Church of God;
a public organ of gratitude !
This life of thanksgiving ought, it seems, to
take a more considerable development in our
century^ since the grace of these latter times
appears to be an effusion of the eucharistic
spirit — viz., the spirit of thanksgiving — spiritum
gratia. Besides, it is only right that at the
end of time the world should chant more fully
the hymn of gratitude to the Author of all
our good, in order that the creature's thanks
may crown the whole series of the Creator's
benefits.
2. THANKSGIVING BY THE EUCHARISTIC
HEART OF JESUS.' — " Quid retribuam Domino pro
omnibus qua retribuit mihi ?" — What shall I
vender to the Lord for all the things that He hath
rendered to me? (Ps. cxv.), exclaims the euchar
istic soul with the Royal Prophet. He has
given me all, and has given Himself. What can
I render him equivalent to or worthy of Him
self ? What offering can I find in my treasures
whose value would not be infinitely below that
of the least drop of the adorable Blood which
He has shed for me ? Truly I have nothing
that I can offer. But Jesus, touched with
compassion at the sight of my poverty, gives
me His eucharistic Heart to serve as the organ
of my gratitude, and that I may offer It to Him
again as a gift of infinite value. By It I
render to God as much, and even more, than
He has given me, as the law of gratitude de
mands ; for I can only receive and possess all
Fifteenth Day 99
that He has given me in a finite manner, while
what I render to Him, by the eucharistic Heart
of Jesus, is truly infinite. Thus I fulfil the duty
of gratitude in all its perfection, and render to
God more than He has bestowed on me. I give
Him a free gift.
3. THANKSGIVING FOR ALL THINGS. — (i) Even
for the most insignificant. " Thou knowest,
0 my God," exclaims St. Gertude, " the cause
of my most bitter grief, of my deepest confusion
— viz., my infidelity, my irreverence, my in
gratitude in the use of Thy benefits. Yes, if
Thou, so great, hadst given to me, so unde
serving, a mere thread of tow, it would have
been my duty to show Thee more reverence
and more love than I have done after so many
graces."
Such are the feelings which ought to animate
the eucharistic soul in her gratitude towards
God — humility, reverence, love, fidelity, with
a good use of the blessings received. She
should be animated with these dispositions in
the reception of even the least grace, in order
to give to her gratitude the delicacy and depth
which befit our extreme lowliness and the
infinite majesty of our Divine Benefactor.
(2) " Hoc facile in meam commemorationem"
St. Mechtilde asked Our Lord what gave
Him the most pleasure in man. He answered :
" When he meditates with deep gratitude, and
continually remembers all the sufferings and
injuries I endured during thirty-three years; in
what poverty I lived, what insults I had to support
from My creatures, and, finally, how much I
suffered on the Cross, dying by the most bitter
death for the love of man, to redeem his soul by
My precious Blood, and render it My faithful
ioo Love, Peace, and Joy
spouse. Let each one be animated, with as much
love and gratitude for all these benefits as if I
had suffered them for him alone."
Oh, may the eucharistic soul take these words
to herself ! What will please Our Lord the
most in her will be that she keep constantly
before her the remembrance of His benefits, and
be grateful for them all. Since the Eucharist
is the memorial of the Passion, the eucharistic
soul must ever be mindful of it, in order to
thank Jesus for so much love, in her own name
and in the name of her brethren. May she
faithfully, constantly, perfectly give to Our
Lord what His Divine Heart desires the most —
viz., gratitude — and console Him to the utmost
for what He feels most deeply — that is, ingrati
tude ! May she thus ever keep before her a
lively remembrance of Jesus in His Passion and
in the Holy Eucharist, and herself fully accom
plish that last recommendation of His love :
" Hoc facite in meam commemorationem " — Do
this for a commemoration of Me (Luke xxii. 19).
(3) Thanksgiving for all Our Sufferings.—
Generally speaking, the sufferings which Our
Lord sends to the eucharistic soul are accom
panied by divers marks of Divine and delicate
tenderness, one more loving than the other, and
which ought to excite in her an ever-increasing
gratitude. We see this in a touching manner
by the example of St. Gertrude. Our Lord
showed her first that by the trials He sent her
He wished to detach her from all creatures
and draw her exclusively to Himself. " / love
so much to converse with thee," He said to her
on an occasion of this kind, " and have wished
by this means to enjoy My happiness for a longer
time. The mother of a little child whom she
Fifteenth Day 101
loves tenderly and desires to have always at her
side, when he wishes to go away and play with
his little comrades, places hard by some object
to frighten him, and he immediately runs back
to take refuge on her bosom. So, as I wish to
have thee always near Me, I allow creatures to
make thee suffer, that thou mayest come to Me and
repose in Me alone."
In the second place, Jesus loads her with
consolation in the midst of her trials, in order
to manifest the tenderness of His Divine Heart
and excite her to a deeper gratitude. He wishes
thus to alleviate her sufferings so sweetly by
the unction of His grace that they may appear
to her much lighter than those of her Sisters,
and in this manner the Divine Wisdom pre
pares for her through those very sufferings a
choice garment, whose beauty is enhanced by the
flowers of humility and patience with which it is
adorned.
The Saint, giving herself up to transports
of gratitude for all these tender manifesta
tions of the love of Jesus, sees these delicate
flowers transform themselves and become mas
sive gold, and He gives her to understand that
thanksgiving for even the slightest sufferings
He sends us in His love supplies for what is
wanting in their intrinsic worth, and gives them
a value which may be compared to that of pure
gold.
Our Lord inspires her to offer all her
sufferings for the salvation of others, and, the
Saint doing this with renewed signs of grati
tude, Jesus accepts her offering with so much
pleasure that He forgives for love of her an
innumerable multitude of sinners.
Such, O eucharistic soul, is the tender love
102 Love, Peace, and Joy
of the Heart of Jesus for you ! Such are your
sufferings in His sight ! Such the value of
thanksgiving !
(4) " Calicem salutaris accipiam " — / will
take the chalice of salvation (Ps. cxv.). St.
Gertrude, at Holy Mass, offered to God, at the
moment of the elevation, the precious Blood
of Jesus, in thanksgiving for all His benefits,
and feeling, at the same time, that in this
offering she ought to unite herself to the senti
ments of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she pros
trated, with her face to the ground, and said
to the Heavenly Father : " / offer myself with
Jesus for all that can most contribute to Thy
glory." Our Lord at once prostrated at her
side, saying : "I am but one with this soul."
Quite overjoyed at this word, Gertrude said to
Him: " Yes, Lord, I am all Thine." And He
answered : " I have united myself so closely to
thee, by the chains of My love, that I cannot live
happily without thee."
Eucharistic soul, wilt thou that Jesus take
His delight in thee ? Wilt thou, according to
the best of thy power, make Him happy, and
show Him perfect gratitude ? Drink from His
chalice, that chalice from which He has drunk
the first, and which He now offers thee in token
of His friendship. Share the sorrows and
sufferings of His Divine Heart, the true chalice
of bitterness, whose overflowing contents He
wishes to pour into the hearts of His friends.
Thy gratitude must extend to this. Jesus has
loved us with the truest, most earnest love — a
love the most devoted, most tender^ most
constant — and therefore has, for our sake,
drunk deeply from the chalice of suffering and
humiliation. Our love must resemble His ;
Fifteenth Day 103
gratitude must return Him like for like — " cogita
quoniam oportet te talia praparare."
4. THANKSGIVING FOR EVERYONE. — We have
already shown, in several places, how St. Ger
trude fulfilled, in the name of all, the duty of
thanksgiving ; we have also seen how, in giving
thanks for the Saints, she teaches us to appro
priate to ourselves their merits and their
virtues.
5. PERPETUAL THANKSGIVING. — " Semper et
ubique gr alias agere " — Always and in all places
give thanks (Preface). Holy Church invites
us to this practice at the moment when the
eucharistic Victim is about to appear on the
altar, by Him to return thanks to God always
and in all places. This is the need of the
eucharistic soul. Her debt of gratitude weighs
her down. It seems to her that eternity will
not suffice for its acquittal. Not only does she
wish to employ her whole life in this, but she
also invites her brethren to help her in offering
to God a perpetual hymn of thanksgiving.
" Unable, 0 Lord, to bless Thee as I desire"
exclaims St. Gertrude. " I call all creatures to
my aid. I beseech Thee to load with Thy
favours those who help me, were it only by a
sigh, to pay my debt oj gratitude." And she
obtained, by the ardent desires of her grateful
heart, that whosoever (even a sinner) to the
end of time thanked God for her should not
die without being converted or raised to a higher
sanctity.*
6. THANKSGIVING IN UNION WITH ALL CREA
TURES.— " For all Thy blessings," exclaimed
* The Association of Perpetual Thanksgiving, at
Bordeaux has St. Gertrude for its especial Patrones.
104 Love, Peace, and Joy
St. Gertrude, " 0 God most loving, and all love
for men, I thank Thee, in union with the reci
procal thanksgivings which exist between the
adorable Persons of the Holy Trinity, in union
with those of Jesus and of all creatures reason
able or inanimate. Deign 0 my beloved
Jesus, to accomplish this duty of thanksgiving
for me to the full extent which justice requires.
Praise Thy Father in me and for me with all
the strength of Thy Divinity, in all the love of
Thy Humanity, and in the name of the whole
universe of beings." She then invites all
creatures to join with her in a hymn of thanks,
making use of the Psalms of Lauds, which
express these sentiments so well, and adding
to them whatever the most lively and tender
gratitude could inspire.
With regard to this subject, the book of the
" Exercises of St. Gertrude " might be used with
great profit, as it contains an especial one for
thanksgiving.
7. THREE FRUITS OF THANKSGIVING. — In the
practice of thanksgiving the eucharistic soul
may find three inexhaustible mines of spiritual
riches, which she may work for herself and for
the Church :
(1) Those who thank God for the graces
bestowed on others, and hope to receive the like,
will obtain them.
(2) In thanking God for all the graces which
others have been unwilling to accept, we deserve
to receive them ourselves, and thus profit by
the recommendation given in the Gospel :
" Colligite fragmenta ne pereant " — Gather up
the fragments . . . lest they be lost (John vi. 12).
(3) In thanking God for all the graces of
which others have not made good use — crosses,
Fifteenth Day 105
sacrifices, etc. — we appropriate them to our
selves, as if we ourselves had made profit by
them.*
Jesus loves better to show gratitude than to
receive it. Let us leave Him to do this. Leave
Him to enrich us with His graces, in order that
we may do more for Him, and that He may
have the joy of showing us in return His grati
tude for all during the whole of eternity.
Misery and affliction call forth a deeper
gratitude ; let us, then, rejoice in our miseries,
which manifest more clearly the bounties of
Jesus, and should excite in us, as we have said,
a deeper gratitude : " Libenter gloriabor in
infirmitatibus meis " — Gladly, therefore, will I
glory in my infirmities (St. Paul, 2 Cor., xii. 9).
* Let us again remember that all this is to be under
stood in proportion to our dispositions and to our
co-operation.
SIXTEENTH DAY
LIFE OF REPARATION
TT may be said that never was the life of
J[ reparation more wanted than it is in our
days, for never was God so publicly outraged,
so fearlessly blasphemed.
Never has the ruin of souls been so complete,
for the faith of the people is sapped to its
foundations. Never has scandal been so wide
spread, for it has become national, nor so
disastrous, for it attacks even childhood, our
last hope. Now, more than ever, then, has Our
Lord need of souls who seriously and generously
make reparation, and aid Him in atoning for
these outrages against God, in saving souls from
ruin, and in repairing these awful scandals.
THE LIFE OF REPARATION IS ESPECIALLY THE
PORTION OF THE EUCHARISTIC SOUL
Who will respond to the urgent need of the
Heart of Jesus and of His Church ? Without
doubt all souls of goodwill who love God and
their neighbour, but particularly all eucharistic
souls. The life of reparation is their especial
portion, for they live always with Jesus in the
Tabernaoje, and He is the first object^ the model
and the means of our reparations.
106
Sixteenth Day 107
1. He is in the Tabernacle the principal object
of the life of atonement, for, as we have shown
elsewhere, it is principally in the Holy Eucharist
that Our Lord is most cruelly outraged. Pro
fanation of the Eucharist is for man the most
fearful of crimes, since by it he eats and drinks
his own condemnation. It is through contempt
or abandonment of the God of the Eucharist
that nations forsake the sources of life, pass
fatally into a kind of practical apostasy, and
end, by losing their faith, in irreparable ruin.
2. To atone for these crimes, the eucharistic
soul should therefore principally direct her
efforts. She also finds in the Eucharist a
perfect model of the life of reparation ; for what
is Jesus doing in His Tabernacle ? He prays,
He immolates Himself, He atones ; always
living to intercede for poor sinners ; always
occupied in repairing the wrongs we do to God
and to ourselves. His life is truly one of atone
ment, universal, perpetual atonement, humble
and hidden, accomplished in peace and in
silence, by the most absolute obedience, the most
complete abnegation, the most entire donation
of Himself. Oh, you who devote yourselves
to reparation, look and act according to the
model which is presented to you. In your
hours of adoration contemplate Jesus dwelling
in the Eucharist. Love God and men as He
does. Devote yourselves and atone like Him,
with Him, and by Him.
3. He is not only the model, but still more
is He the means of our reparation. The euchar
istic soul ought to appropriate to herself by
love and union the satisfactions of Jesus, and
then offer them to God as a treasure belonging
to herself, and with which she is able to pay
io8 Love, Peace, and Joy
the debts of the whole universe. With lips
crimsoned by the Blood of Jesus, she gives
utterance to that voice which speaks more
eloquently than the blood of Abel, and she
obtains mercy. She offers herself as one
victim with Jesus, sprinkling her sacrifice with
the sacred tears He shed to wash away the
crimes of the world, and she merits to be heard
because of the respect God has for His Divine
Son, with Whom she is one.
As we have seen elsewhere, Jesus, whose
tender Heart cannot endure that the desires
of a loving soul remain incomplete, accom
plishes them Himself. He perfects the tribute
of reparation which we wish to offer to His
Father, and offers it in our name, so that
nothing may be wanting. He thus completes
the work of the soul who atones, and whether
by the merits of our Redeemer or by those of
His Saints, her task becomes accomplished.*
GENERAL FORMULA OF REPARATION
That the work of reparation may be complete,
we may purpose to ourselves to repair all the
harm that sin has done to the sinner himself,
to God, and to the Church.
Divine Saviour, for Thee and by Thee I wish
to repair, perpetually and universally, all the
evil committed in the world, and especially in
Thy sanctuary.
With regard to sinners, I unite myself —
i. To Thy contrition, which is able to repair
all our iniquities, and I apply it to them to
* Through her intention, which Our Lord accepts in
some way as if it were fully realized.
Sixteenth Day 109
cleanse them from their sins, all of which I
would take upon myself with Thee.
2. To Thy satisfactions, in order to cancel
the debt of punishment those sins have
incurred.
With regard to God, I unite myself to Thy
act of unceasing atonement, and to the love of
Thy Heart, by which Thou dost restore to Him
the glory and joy of which sin has deprived
Him.
With regard to the Church, I offer up the
merits of Thy Passion, which, by virtue of the
union which exists between us, I venture to
appropriate, in order to restore to the Church
suffering all the satisfactory merits, to the
Church militant all the graces, and to the Angels
and Saints all the accidental glory, love, and
joy, of which they have been deprived by the
sins of men.
We may meditate on these different points
more profoundly, for they are all founded on
theology. On one side we shall see that sin is
a universal evil, for it is an injury both to
God and to creatures, and on the other side
that Jesus has made universal reparation for
all that evil, and that, in uniting ourselves to
His Divine Heart, we participate in this general
atonement, appropriating it to ourselves in such
a way as to be able with Jesus and by Jesus to
offer an entire reparation.
ST. GERTRUDE'S METHODS OF REPARATION
REPARATION FOR THE DISORDERS OF THE
CARNIVAL. — On Quinquagesima Sunday St.
Gertrude saw that Our Lord had all the repara-
no Love, Peace, and Joy
tions which she and her Sisters offered Him
during the Carnival marked down in the Book
of Life.
" / will give thee," said Jesus, " in return for
all these services, a measure full, pressed down,
heaped up, and overflowing ; for My human
Heart, like thine own, feels more deeply the
kindnesses shown to Me in times of sorrow than
those I may receive in the time of prosperity.
Like David, who deigned to admit into his palace
and to his table the children of Berzellai (who had
assisted him when he fled from the persecution
of A bsalom) , and showed them his gratitude even
till death — in like manner I will admit thee to
the table of My delights, and for all eternity will
be grateful to those who show Me honour now, when
I am persecuted by the world"
Jesus then recommended her to offer all her
works of atonement in union with His Passion,
from which they derive all their merit, and
St. Gertrude begging Him to teach her how
He wished her to do this, He indicated to her
for this effect to pray with her arms extended
in the form of a cross, by which we represent to
the eyes of God the figure of His Divine and
crucified Son.
REPARATION FOR BLASPHEMY. — St. Gertrude,
deeply grieved by an injury she had heard
against Our Lord, offered Him, with all the
affection of her heart, the following act of
atonement : "7 salute Thee, 0 life-giving Pearl
of the Divinity ; I salute Thee, 0 Flower ever
fresh of human nature, my most amiable Jesus,
my Sovereign, my only Salvation !" And He
answered : "And I salute Thee also, I, Thy
Creator, thy Redeemer, thy Spouse ; I who have
won thee at the price of all My Blood." He then
Sixteenth Day in
bestowed upon her such tender marks of
affection that the Saints were rapt in admira
tion ; arid He added : " Whoever shall salute
Me as thou hast done, to repair the blasphemies
which are vomited against Me, shall receive from
Me similar marks of affection."
" Let us apply ourselves," concludes the
book, " to bless the Lord with all the fervour
of our souls whenever we hear blasphemy, and
if we cannot do it with an affection equal to
that of St. Gertrude, let us at least offer Him
our desires t bless Him with the fervour and love
of all creatures, and trust that His tender Heart
will accept our goodwill"
ATONEMENT FOR SACRILEGES. — It happened
one day that, in folding up the vestments, a
Host which had been placed on the altar fell^
and there was a doubt as to whether it had been
consecrated or not.
Gertrude at once had recourse to Our Lord,
and learning from Him that it was not conse
crated, she felt extreme joy in knowing that
He Whom she loved so dearly had been spared
so great an irreverence.
Nevertheless, on considering the many out
rages Jesus receives in the sacrament of His
love, she said to Him : " Since Thou art so much
offended, 0 Lord, not only by Thy enemies, but
even by those who ought to be Thy friends, and
sometimes by Thy priests and by religious (an
injury which calls for the bitterest tears), I will
say nothing to my Sisters, so as not to deprive
Thee of the satisfaction they wish to offer on
account of this Host, and which will be a sweet
consolation to Thee"
She added : " 0 Lord, tell me what satisfac
tion would be most acceptable to Thy Heart,
ii2 Love, Peace, and Joy
and I will try to accomplish it, were it even to
exhaust all my strength.'' Our Lord gave her
to understand that He would willingly accept
the offering of two hundred and twenty-five
Paters, recited in honour of His sacred members ;
the same number of acts of charity towards
others, done as if to Himself, in union with the
charity He has for us ; and if the same number
of times they would deprive themselves of the
vain satisfactions of earth in order to give
pleasure to God. Oh, how great and ineffable
are the goodness and mercy of our loving
Saviour, thus to accept from us such trifling
atonements !
Let us offer them to Him with our whole
heart, counting upon His liberality to supply
for what is wanting in them, and upon His own
satisfactions to perfect the reparation we desire
to make.
UNIVERSAL REPARATION
On one occasion, the Monday before the
Ascension, St. Gertrude, assisting a Sister who
was ill, by services beyond her strength, offered
them to Our Lord in atonement for all the sins
of mankind. It then seemed to her as if she
enchained with a link of gold (symbol of charity)
an immense multitude of men and women; and
brought them to Him, while He, full of mercy
and love, showed great pleasure, and most
willingly accepted this offering, just as a King
would receive from one of his most trusted
officers all his enemies brought by him as
prisoners, in order to make peace with him and
thenceforth serve him loyally.
Sixteenth Day 113
The next day, at Holy Mass, as she laid before
Jesus the faults and imperfections of all the
just, and ardently prayed for their amendment,
she saw the soft dew of grace descending on their
hearts, causing them to flower again with new
beauty and invigorating them with fresh
strength.
SEVENTEENTH DAY
LIFE OF REPARATION— Continued
DISPOSITIONS WHICH OUGHT TO ANIMATE THE
EUCHARISTIC SOUL IN HER LIFE OF
REPARATION
WE include them in three of St. Gertrude's
dispositions : sincere goodwill, gratitude,
unlimited desires. In order that the reparation
we offer to the Heart of Jesus may be fully
agreeable, it must come from the depths of our
heart, and we should be grateful to Him for
deigning to make use of us to console Him in
His sorrows and for the salvation of others ;
but to make our atonement complete we must, by
our desires, increase it in proportion to the evils
we wish to repair, and by union with the satis
factions of our Saviour give it a merit as great
as our desires.
We have already seen how St. Gertrude,
animated by a sincere goodwill to satisfy for
the sins of the world, succeeded by her ardent
prayers and tender caresses in appeasing God's
anger and rendering Him propitious to poor
sinners.
Another reason why her sacrifice was received
as an odour of sweetness and fully consoled her
dearly-loved Saviour was because she gratefully
114
Seventeenth Day 115
accepted the sufferings of body or soul, which
He sent her to expiate the crimes of the world.
For Jesus had taught her that gratitude gives
value to the least sufferings and compensates
for the satisfactory merit which may be wanting
to them.
Gertrude, in fine, as she had also been taught
by Him, accompanied her slightest works of
atonement with a universal intention and
boundless desires ; and to supply for the in
efficiency of those desires she united herself to
the satisfactions of Jesus and His Saints, and
thus accomplished the work of reparation.
PRACTICAL WAYS OF MULTIPLYING THE MEANS
OF REPARATION
We will mention several (as easy as they are
encouraging) suggested by St. Gertrude which
may become mines of great wealth to the
soul if employed in the spirit which animated
her.
i. ABANDONMENT. — As the evil which we
wish to repair comes from man's revolt against
God, Who had arranged all for his greater good,
the remedy and the atonement is in our con
formity and entire submission to that all-wise,
all-merciful Will. Again, if Our Lord wishes
to make use of us in the work of reparation, we
must not forget that He wants for this souls
utterly abandoned to Him, with whom He can
do whatever He wills.
If He find such, He will accomplish in them
this necessary work, in a manner both agree
able to themselves, consoling for His Divine
Heart, and fruitful for the Church. Let us only
Leave Him free to act and abandon ourselves to
n6 Love, Peace, and Joy
Him.* Looking at it in this light, which certainly
is the truest, reparation entails nothing terrible,
sad, or even painful. It is a sweet, peaceful,
and meritorious work, for which we place our
selves, as docile instruments, in the beneficent
hands of Jesus, and at the disposal of His tender,
merciful Heart, that by us and in us He may
pour balm on every wound, remedy every evil,
console all sorrow, and spread peace and order
abroad. And will He not begin by ourselves ?
Shall we not be the first cured, consoled, pacified,
re-established in order, and in an abundance
of all that is good ? What, then, have we to fear,
and why be disturbed ? Abandonment — aban
donment for ever, and without fear, to Him who
is all peace, all sweetness, all order, and all good.
2. HUMILITY. — Pride being the beginning of
sin, humility destroys it in its root, cuts ofi in
their very source the evils it has produced, and
atones directly for the offence it has committed
against God. Thus humility is the especial
characteristic of the reparation of which Jesus
shows us the example in the Eucharist. There,
even more than in His Incarnation, He has
humbled, annihilated, stripped Himself, not
only of His Divine^ but even of His human, form,
and presents to our senses only an appearance
without reality.
Eucharistic soul, behold your model ! Hu
mility should be your especial virtue, and as it
is usually acquired by humiliation, let yourself
be abased, hide yourself, keep silence, strip
yourself as much as possible of your personality.
* That is to say, to His Providence, which will render
the burden of requisite sacrifices light, and to His grace
which, by its attractions, will lead us to take upon
ourselves the sweet yoke of such as are voluntary.
Seventeenth Day 117
Allow yourself to be annihilated ; submit to all ;
esteem yourself as nothing ; accept all failures,
forgetfulness, contempt ; bear all contradictions,
misunderstandings, without saying a word to
justify yourself. When there is a question _ of
self, always and in all places keep silence, like
Jesus in the Eucharist. In His Passion even He
several times spoke of Himself ; in the Eucharist
never. Imitate Him, for He the Master gives
the example to you, a mere servant, in order
that you may resemble Him. Such is the
immolation He asks from you ; not so terrible
as that of Calvary, and even rendered sweet by
His grace, but still no less an immolation, which
will destroy your self-love for the sake of Jesus,
and enable you to make a true and efficacious
atonement.
3. ADORATION, PRAISE, THANKSGIVING. — We
have shown, elsewhere, in what way they can be
satisfactory, and what resources they offer to
the soul as means of reparation.*
4. THE CROSS. — Jesus atoned for all the sins
of the world by the Sacrifice of the Cross, of
which the eucharistic Sacrifice is only the
reproduction. All our sufferings, then, in the
general plan of the redemption are a means by
which we may unite ourselves to the Cross of
Jesus, to repair our sins and those of others.
Let us accept them in this spirit. Let us aban
don ourselves, gently and lovingly, without
fear or reserve, to all the crosses which Jesus,
in His providence and mercy, may send us.
Let them do their work of expiation completely.
By them, and by the sacrifices which His grace
* We have not spoken here of Holy Communion,
Mass, and adoration of reparation, etc., which in reality
are connected with the means we have indicated.
n8 Love, Peace, and Joy
may inspire us to add; we shall accomplish what
is wanting on our part to the Passion of Our
Saviour for His body, the Church, and thus
fulfil our part in the great work of reparation
which He has operated by the sacrifice of
Calvary, and which He applies to our souls in
that of the Holy Eucharist.
5. LOVE. — Love, in fine, which embraces all,
perfects all, gives their price to all other atone
ments, and can supply for all. The love of the
eucharistic soul is as balm to the wounds of
the Heart of Jesus, a sweet compensation for
all the worship of which He has been deprived;
a grateful satisfaction for all the outrages which
He has to endure. Love — love, and that is
sufficient. Let us love for ourselves and for
others, consume ourselves through love, spread
love around us everywhere, surround Jesus with
love. In our heart and by our heart let Him
love as much as He desires, as much as He needs
to love. Offer Him, then, all the, love He claims
in return, by drawing into our heart the affec
tions of all His creatures and laying them at
His feet. Let us do all we can that our Divine
Friend may be loved as much as He desires.
That will be the most acceptable reparation we
can win for Him. The eucharistic soul who
spreads love about her will repair all evil around
her, and in proportion as she inflames others with
Divine love, she will contribute to their pardon
and their salvation. Like St. Magdalen, the
soul who loves much for herself and for others
obtains the remission of many sins, both for
herself and for them.
" Remittuntur ei peccata multa, quoniam
dilexit multum " — Many sins are forgiven her,
because she hath loved much (Luke vii. 47).
EIGHTEENTH DAY
THE CONSOLER OF THE HEART OF JESUS,
ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE
" f^ONSOLANTEM ME QU^SIVI "— Jesus
V^ seeks for souls who console Him,
especially in the secret sorrows of His afflicted
Heart ; He asks for balm to be poured over
the wounds of His heart — wounds which He
feels most deeply because He received them
in the house of those who loved Him, in the
sanctuary of His temple.
" Others," He tells us, " were satisfied by
striking me on the back, but my friends — those
at least, who ought to be such, who were con
secrated to Me — have wounded Me to the
heart, have wounded Me even in the Sacrament
of love, at the Altar, at the Holy Table, in the
Tabernacle"
Oh, eucharistic Heart of Jesus, how deep are
the pangs of Thy sorrow ! What heart could
fully sympathize therein ? Where find con
solation equal to Thy hidden sufferings ? The
eucharistic soul alone could comprehend the
dolours of Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist, for
He will reveal them to her in the intimacy of
her life of adoration, will confide them to her
as to a truly sympathetic friend, and will give
her to share them by a heartfelt compassion.
He will teach her how to find consolations
119
I2O Love, Pence, imd Joy
In S*><>||K- Ilieili, will (liable lid in
line, In a* cnmplish Hi* woi k nl i* paiah< ;.
,.uy al prevent ami In diaw down mei* y
upon IK i sinlul brethren.
ii is. ABOVE AI i , INI i<ii< iiAicisi ir. in AIM <>i<
JES > II <! AIMS <>UK SYMI'A IIIV
I . We have already spokm of Ihis, bill In
nblain more li/dil we will < l*-v«-|np si ill furlhei Ihe
iiuih thai the sorrows of the eucharistic lleaii
nl Jesus, aie Hie n'Ht"ic>iil of (he nms.l cruel and
iiiinosl agonies, of I Ms I'.. : ion, ami also (heir
Continuation al all limes and in e\'*-iy |>lace.
'Ihe inn;. I terrible of (hem all is manifested
in I he ( iaiden nl Olives, by thai learlul sweal oi
blood, and Ihos* woids nl supreme desolalion
which it die\v limn Our Sa\'i<>in'.. lips. There
was, in Ihe I ii si place, Ihe chalice ol I i is Isilher's
(list anr* r, which lie had (o drink lo Hie veiy
die|;s ; Him, as unaided 'Himself, Ihe ICMOI
and apprehension *au-.((l by lh<- s.i/'Jil of Ihe
sullei in/'.s. Me had lo endure, both in Mis I'as
sion and in llis eiicharislic life; and, Ihii'dly,
as ie/',aided Mis myslic members, Hi*' weij'.hl
ol '.n many eiminiciis crimes, which bore- Mini
down as il Me had been Ihe culprit, llnoiivh
Mis. l*'lln\\ship wilh us. 'Ihe fnicsirjil also of
Ihe m/'ja 1 1 1 u< le ol men, who would res. pond lo
such love only by new oulra;;es ; and, above all,
Ihe knowledge I ha I a \\\ ca I number would be !*>:.(,
nolu'ilhs.landin,", or even because of I !is Passion.
And il is. Ihis. a^ony which is, renewed and
<>ii all nur allars.* (esus descends
¥ Jesus uo\v. ol cours*
.my inoie. Ni ll h-T ile.il I
power over Mini. Me- suffered all ii
Ki^hlccnfh Dsiy i 33
i Jh i . on to (Si ink anew to Hi i i If chalice
ol His l«'a.lli< i i Who IS iMic«-.i:.iii;".ly
ii nl a leu l,y 1 1 ic eiim >8 of 1 1 ic win M a ml \\ hose
• e I !«• inusi unceai inglj
\ I Ic comes to nnile llimsell to : I
ler.ious men in order to hear, as it were, nios.l
huly Hie weight ol then sins ; lor Me It
endure all their odious and humiliating treat
incuts, and it is in the sanctuary that their
heinous iniquities are commit l< <l and [all
D 1 lim ; there that ingratitude appeals
i>lack because ol the greater tendei in-.;,
1 le displays , (here that love liecomes a cause
ol moie lenil.le obduracy :iud repiokilion lor
those whom Me had, nevertheless, once made
His deaie-.l friends, Who, then could (ell
how Hi:; lleaif is wounded, lorn, crushed under
the pressure ol such suHeriug ?
And tins a;;ony is, as we have said, renewed
lor Him at all times and in all places. '1 he
,'iwl'ul :;ulTciiiif;s of Hu- Heart ol Jesi:
relocated as olleii as HICK- arc days when the
Holy Sacrifice is ollered, as olien as m any
place a new altar is erected, a new CaUaiy
lor the eucharistic Victim. Count, il yon are
able, and |6Q il (here is soiiow like that ol
Hie Heart ol Jesus m the I'.lessed I'iucharist
Vidftt- si cst ifalvr sicut dolor meus /" (Lain, ol
|eremias).
It ij;, thereloiv, the eucharistic Heart of Jesus
which the loving soul shonU seek especially
to console, and should multiply hei consolations
'Illllll;; III:, moil. I.I I. lie, ;|ll(l ('.IMi'li, .Hid IV.illl. (ll'.f
;i.-, now I lie I lol\' S. ic i I lice. I lioiir.li I he s.ime ,r. I .il\.n y.
is renewed m .in un/'loctlv mjimuT. so, too, are llis
Mlllellll;;:; renewed III V:,l n .ill V . Mi1: body .Ul«l MMll
hoi li enjoy the I'.e.idlu \ isioil.
122 Love, Peace, and Joy
in proportion to the multitude of sorrows this
loving Heart has to endure — " Secundum multi-
tudinem dolorum meorum consolationes tucz Iceti-
ficaverunt animam meam " (Ps. xciii. 19).
She should, by the inventions of her love,
render her consolations universal and per
petual;* and this is the task we would aid her
to accomplish through the suggestions Our
Lord Himself made to St. Gertrude. We will
indicate in general several universal forms,
which may be given to all the practices we are
about to point out.
1. UNION WITH THE ALTAR. — By this we pro
pose to follow Jesus into all the places where
His eucharistic Heart is about to suffer, in
order that we may be ever there to console
and comfort Him. The priest especially can
endeavour to fulfil this office of consoler, which
belongs, above all, to him as minister of the
Eucharist, and fulfil it in a universal and per
petual manner, by considering " the whole
world as his parish," as St. Bridget advised a
holy priest of her time, and as the Blessed Peter
Faber was accustomed to do. In virtue of this
office, he will endeavour to guard and console
Jesus in all His Tabernacles.
2. We may also employ the form of universal
and perpetual adoration at the foot of every
Tabernacle ; of universal and perpetual Mass at
every altar ; of universal and perpetual Com
munion (by Jesus in the Holy Eucharist) with
* It is easily understood that these expressions,
universal, perpetual, must be taken only in the sense
of a pious desire, as in the prayer, " May the eucharis
tic Heart of Jesus be praised, adored, loved at every
moment, in every tabernacle " But, still, this desire
has no less a great value in the eyes of Our Lord, as He
testified to St. Gertrude.
Eighteenth Day 123
all who communicate, and into whose souls we
enter with Him, to love them as He does, and
return Him love for love with them, to console
them with Him, and with them and for them,
to give Him comfort and consolation.
What happiness and joy to be thus like the
charitable Samaritan to Jesus, our beloved
Victim ! To watch near Him, to console His
Heart, to pour oil and wine on His wounds — the
oil of mercy and the wine of our love ! In this
way we give to Jesus what in these days He
wants, the most, and claims with greatest earnest
ness.
Listen to the appeal He makes to us from the
depth of His Tabernacle, as He has several times
done to His Saints : " Protect Me from the fury
of My enemies; guard Me safe in thy heart
to console Mine own, which is in such affliction !
Let thy love be a balm to My wounds. It will
make Me forget the sins of men ; for I am more
sensible to love than to injury. Be a victim
with Me for those ruthless creatures who cause
Me such suffering and whom My Heart inces
santly loves. Live with Me in continual im
molation for them ; refuse Me nothing to obtain
the triumph of My mercy and the salvation of
souls. Consent even to suffer without conso
lation in order to console My Heart with
greater efficacy. Remain always before Me to make
atonement, and repair the outrages perpetrated
against Me without ceasing."
When Jesus shall see us assiduous in the
practice of reparation, perpetual and nocturnal
adoration, communion of atonement, etc., He
will say to us also, as He said to His Saints :
" / rejoiced, beloved soul, when I saw thee
come into My presence. I wish to find conso-
124 Love, Peace, and Joy
lation with thee, and tell thee what gives Me
the greatest suffering, what wounds most cruelly
My Heart — viz., the injuries I receive in the
Sacrament of My love, the crimes oj those new
traitors whom I had made My friends like
Judas, and who treat Me now as the most cruel
enemy. The anger of My Father is about to
burst over them. I can no longer sustain its
weight. Help Me by thy atonements, for My
Heart ever loves these ungrateful creatures
and wishes to save them. It will be deeply
grateful to thee for thus coming to console Me
in the place where they cause Me the greatest
suffering ; and in return thy Friend in the
Blessed Eucharist will load thee with His con
solations."
NINETEENTH DAY
THE CONSOLER OF THE HEART OF JESUS
— Continued
GENERAL PRACTICES FOR CONSOLING THE SACRED
HEART OF JESUS
WE may reduce them to the following
points :
1. Love — above all, love. What the suffering
Heart of Jesus needs most is to find a heart that
loves Him, sympathizes with and is devoted
to Him — a heart that knows how to understand
His sorrows and to relieve them.
2. Then Compassion, which, in order to lessen
the sorrows of His afflicted Heart, takes them,
as it were, upon oneself. This is what the Heart
of Jesus asks by those words : " / looked for
one that would grieve together with Me " (Ps.
Ixviii. 21).
3. Atonement, which completely heals the
wounds which give Him pain, in destroying
their effect, or even suppressing their cause.
Let us, in fine, endeavour fully to console the
deep sorrows of the Heart of Jesus, and make
Him entirely forget them, by procuring for Him
every kind of joy, of pleasure, and of glory.
First, joy in giving Him by our prayers and
sacrifices the means of loving — yes, loving as
125
126 Love, Peace, and Joy
much as He desires, for love produces joy.
Then pleasure* by providing Him the means
of giving as much grace, etc., as He wishes,
according to that true principle — the sweetest
pleasure is to be able to give it ; in causing Him
to exercise gratitude as much as He desires,
according to that other principle — gratitude is
the joy of a good heart. Finally, glory, in en
abling Him to pardon as freely as He wishes,
for the true glory of Jesus is the display of His
mercy. Of this we shall speak later on.
Now, in order to offer universal and perpetual
consolation to the Heart of Jesus, let us en
deavour to apply it — (i) to all His past sorrows,
those of His life on earth — above all, those
during His Passion ; f (2) to all the present sorrows
of His Divine Person in the Eucharist ; (3) to
all His sorrows in the members of His mystical
Body on earth and in Purgatory.
PRACTICES WHICH OUR LORD TAUGHT ST.
GERTRUDE BY WHICH TO CONSOLE His DIVINE
HEART — i. Jucundam mansionem\ — In the Heart
of St. Gertrude that of Jesus found a Place of
Sweet Repose. — St. Gertrude, feeling very tired,
asked Our Lord for a little rest. " Which dost
thou prefer," replied the good Master — " that
thou shouldst repose in Me, or that I should repose
in thee ?" Behold Thy servant, Lord ; be it
done unto me according to Thy good pleasure.
" Well, if thou dost consent to endure this fatigue
* St. Thomas, when speaking of consolations for the
afflicted, puts pleasure on the first line, delectatio ;
compassion comes later.
f See Note p. 120.
J Pleasant habitation is the word by which the
Church, in the prayer of the Roman breviary, character
izes the heart of St. Gertrude.
Nineteenth Day 127
still longer, thou wilt give Me the sweetest rest : I
lean on thy heart, and there I console Myself for
the ill-treatment I receive from so many ungrateful
creatures. At the same time, the concert of thy
good desires delights My ears with a pleasing
harmony. The good sentiments of thy soul exhale
for Me the perfume of all virtues. The love which
directs towards Me each beating of thy heart creates
around Me a refreshing breeze. I prefer to the
sweetest draught the tender charity by which
thou art inebriated for the salvation of all man
kind, and I possess in reach of My hand the
treasure of thy heart, wherein thou dost hoard up
resources to do good to those who are in distress.
See, then, what consolations thou dost afford Me
by this passing weariness which thou art willing
to endure for Me."
Let us encourage ourselves to bear our
fatigues and indispositions, great or little,
bravely, with the thought of being able to give
such comfort to our greatest Friend. Our suffer
ings will thus be sanctified by pure love, and fully
utilized by Our Saviour's mercy, for the salva
tion of our brethren.
2. The Garden of the Eucharistic Soul. — There
is another means by which the eucharistic soul
can multiply the consolations and joys of the
Divine Guest in the Tabernacle. St. Gertrude
on several occasions tried to rejoice Our Lord
by the loving ingenuities of her piety, and He
showed her what pleasure they gave Him. One
day she said to Him : " How can Thy goodness
find such satisfaction in the little things I do
for Thee?" He answered: "/ see thy heart
ever occupied in consoling Me by a thousand
different practices, which are all My joy. I take
as much pleasure in them as one would who was
128 Love, Peace, and Joy
conducted by his friend, with the most tender
caresses, into a beautiful garden to let him breathe
the softest air, to delight his eye with the sight of
various flowers, charm his ear with the sound of
sweet music, and refresh him with fruits of ex
quisite taste."
What a charming programme for the euchar-
istic'soul to try and realize before the Divine
Guest in the Tabernacle, and thus, by treating
Him really as a friend, make Him forget that
so many others treat Him as an enemy !
Caressing Him with the warmest affection to
atone for the coldness and disdain of ungrateful
souls. Introducing Him into a garden of de
light, where He may breathe a pure soft air,
instead of that of the world, which is so vitiated
and empoisoned by the crimes of men. Rejoic
ing Him with the sight of various flowers,
emblems of the different virtues He loves to see
in souls who are His spouses. Charming Him
with the sounds of sweet harmony — the Amen
of praise, the Alleluia of holy joy, the Deo
gratias of gratitude, which will deaden the in
fernal concert of blasphemy, so rife in our days ;
refreshing His taste with the exquisite fruits of
good works, to make Him forget the bitterness
of the gall and vinegar which sinners give Him
to drink.
3. Balm for the Wounds of Jesus. — With
regard to this, we refer our readers to what we
have said in another chapter, where we have
shown how the Heart of Jesus finds consolation
in our desire for the cross, and where we have
heard Him say to St. Gertrude, on account of
this desire: " Thou art the soothing balm of My
wounds."
TWENTIETH DAY
THE VICTIM OF THE HEART OF JESUS,
ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE
ERTRUDE, the suffering victim.
" My Heart finds such pleasure in Ger
trude,'' said Our Lord to a holy soul. " that it
often happens to Me, when I am offended by
others, to seek My rest in her, by afflicting her with
some suffering of body or mind. She accepts
these trials, in union with My Passion, with so
much gratitude, and bears them with so much
patience and humility, that she appeases me at
once, and forces Me to forgive innumerable sinners
for love of her "
Gertrude, eucharistic victim. Jesus one day
taught her by those words of Isaiah — " Arise,
put on thy strength, 0 Sion " (Hi. i) — the advan
tage the Church militant derives from the devo
tion of the elect, insomuch that when a loving
soul turns with all her heart to God, with the
full desire to atone, if she were able, for the
wrongs by which men injure the honour of
Our Lord, and endeavours to appease Him, by
her ardent prayers and respectful caresses, she
often does it so completely that He pardons the
whole world.
Gertrude, victim of desires. On the Festival
of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, during the
129 9
130 Love, Peace, and Joy
elevation of the chalice, Gertrude offering to
Our Lord the sufferings of the community, He
said to her : " I will drink — yes, I will drink this
chalice which the ardour of your desires has filled
with so much sweetness for Me. I will drink it
as often as you present it to Me, until you have, as
it were, intoxicated Me with it in order to render
Me favour able to your prayers." "An how,"
answered she, " 0 Lord, can we offer it to Thee ?"
" As often," replied Jesus, " as you form in your
heart the desire to suffer all that one can suffer till
the Day of Judgment." Then He taught her in
what words to express this desire : " Lord, for
Thy greater glory, make my will agree with my
words. I would that all the suffering of desire,
ever experienced in Thy love by any human
heart from the beginning of the world till the end,
may accumulate in my heart, and remain there
till the day of my death, in order that these desires
may give Thee to find a more pleasing retreat
in my heart, and make Thee amends for the
ingratitude of men."
CONSIDERATIONS. — Love shows itself by sacri
fice, and sacrifice, offered up in the Heart of
Jesus, exhales an odour of sweetness, not only
for God Who receives it, but for us who offer
it, and for those who assist thereat. Thus the
life of sacrifice — in other words, the life of a
victim — united to the Heart of Jesus, is a life
of real sweetness, and, in the truest sense, a life
of love, of joy, and of peace. May we under
stand this, and by practice and experience see and
enjoy it : " Gustate et videte quoniam suavis est !" —
Taste and see how sweet it is / (Ps. xxxiii. 9).
A victim may be considered in three different
ways : as suffering — this regards herself and is
personal ; as a substitute for others ; and in
Twentieth Day 131
prayer and all religious acts ; this regards
God.
With respect to suffering, St. Gertrude seems
to have adhered to the Rule of her Order, which
was sufficiently severe, and to the great rule
of abandonment to Providence. The Rule of
St. Benedict supplied her with enough fasts,
vigils, labours, and divers works of penance to
keep alive the fire of her sacrifice, and the all-
wise and loving care of Jesus added to these,
besides the mortifications to which she was
drawn by the attractions of grace, sickness,
labours, and other trials, which served to inten
sify its flame.
The Saint found a means of supplying for
whatever might be wanting, and of obtaining
before God the merit of aU that those Saints
who endured the most have suffered, by the dis
positions indicated above — viz., desire, union,
and abandonment. All this, with regard to
suffering, she had been taught by the Heart of
Jesus. Which of us could not learn from her
this science of the victim of the Sacred Heart,
appropriate these sentiments, and thus excite
ourselves to rival, in some degree, the most
ardent lovers of the Cross ?
With regard to substitution — viz., taking the
place of another — we see, by passages cited
above, that Gertrude was always at the free
disposal of Our Lord, to immolate herself in the
place of others, and thus obtain their pardon.
More frequently, indeed, He seems to have
been satisfied with rather ordinary sufferings
joined to extraordinary dispositions, by which
their merit was increased. And, applying to
her the rule of the Gospel, " With what measure
you mete, it shall be measured to you again "
132 Love, Peace, and Joy
(Matt. vii. i), even as Gertrude suffered in the
place of others, Jesus deigned to become with
His Saints substitutes for her, so that she was
able to appropriate His and their sufferings, as
if she had, as it were, endured them herself ;
and thus her most trivial pains gained an incom
parable satisfactory value for herself and for
others. Here, again, could not any of us try
to do as she did ? There is nothing sad, nothing
to dismay us. Is not the life of a victim, thus
understood, even attractive, full of grace and
the fruits of salvation ?
Finally, with regard to religious acts, Gertrude
was most especially the victim of the Heart of
Jesus, Who Himself was the perfect Worshipper
of His Father. She lived with Him a true
religious life. Praise, thanksgiving, prayer,
desire, atonement, worship, the Divine Office —
such were her whole occupations.
She also fulfilled in an admirable manner the
four aims of a victim's life : adoration, thanks
giving, reparation, impetration. These four
duties, accomplished in union with the Heart of
Jesus, absorbed her entire life. It seems, how
ever, that thanksgiving and supplication were
its dominant characteristics, because Gertrude
was a eucharistic soul, and the life of the euchar-
istic Heart of Jesus manifests itself principally
by thanksgiving and by prayer.
We may also distinguish four phases in the
victim's life : oblation, by which it is offered to
God ; immolation — viz., its sacrifice ; combus
tion, by which it is purified; transformed, and
sanctified ; communion, by which God unites it
to Himself, and makes use of it to unite Himself
to men. These four phases are seen in the life
of St. Gertrude, as they are in that of Our Lord ;
Twentieth Day 133
but it may be said that the last — communion —
has the greatest share, as it has in the life of the
eucharistic Heart of Jesus. Her acts of obla
tion and immolation were accomplished with
the utmost generosity. Her transformation in
the fire of Divine love became continually more
and more perfect ; but it was communion that
held the first place — communion with Jesus, by
unity of heart and life ; with the Saints, by the
most intimate charity ; communion with souls,
by the most devoted zeal.
Finally, the life of a victim may be considered
in two different ways — viz., as the victim of
Calvary, and the eucharistic victim. The
victim of the Sacred Heart ought, it seems, to
adopt the second of these forms, more particu
larly as Our Lord has manifested His Divine
Heart to us especially in the Divine Eucharist
under the form of His sacramental life, as if He
would tell us that this is the more permanent,*
more ordinary state, and the one to which He
would call the eucharistic soul, more particu
larly in these last ages of the world, when the
Church seems to expect again an era of consola
tion, in a wide effusion of the eucharistic spirit.
It is especially the eucharistic victim that
becomes manifest in the life of St. Gertrude, and
she is well able to teach us that if in the victim
of Calvary the virtue of patience is most apparent,
humility is more characteristic of the victim of
the Blessed Eucharist. If the victim of Calvary
displays more generosity, that of the Eucharist
is more distinguished by the spirit of abandon
ment. If the former imitates more perfectly
* " Sic eum volo manere, donee veniam," said Jesus
with regard to St. John, who is the type of the euchar
istic victim of the Sacred Heart.
134 Love, Peace, and Joy
the suffering life of our Redeemer, the latter is
more conformed to the life of Jesus in the holy
Tabernacle — a life of praise, prayer, and love
Such more especially was the life of St. Ger
trude, and for this reason she seems to be more
accessible as a model to us, and to lead us, in
this way, more sweetly and surely to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — The various points
we have just explained offer of themselves
sufficient matter for practice.
TWENTY-FIRST DAY
THE VICTIM OF DESIRES
T ET us complete what we have already
J ^ said about the victim of desires, by show
ing how agreeable she is to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, and how He accepts her goodwill for its
reality. We devote a special chapter to this,
although we have already spoken several times
about it, because it is one of the forms character
istic of the spirituality of St. Gertrude, and a
rich mine of spiritual treasures, easy to be
worked by the friends of the Sacred Heart. In
fact, it seems to us particularly useful in these
trying times, when souls of goodwill appear, as
it were, fettered, and reduced to live a life full
of desires which they are unable to accomplish
outwardly. It will, then, we think, be very
useful to show that the victim of desires is not
on this account less pleasing to Our Lord, and
may acquire as much merit in His sight as the
Saints of old, who did such great things, and
may win from Him for His Church abundant
grace proportioned to their desires.
I. JESUS ACCOMPLISHES THE DESIRES OF HlS
FRIENDS IN PROPORTION TO THEIR EARNEST
NESS AND INTENSITY.— St. Gertrude, reciting
at the Office the versicle " Salvum fac populum
tuum" — Save Thy people (from the Te
Deum), with an ardent desire that Our Lord
136 Love, Peace, and Joy
would grant an abundant blessing to all the
Church : " How do you wish Me to act in this
regard. My beloved ?" He said to her ; "for I now
abandon Myself to thy will, as absolutely as 1
abandoned Myself on the Cross to that of My
Father. Distribute, then, in virtue of My Divi
nity, whatsoever thou dost wish, and abundantly
as thou dost desire." What a touching fulfil
ment of the Divine promise ! " Voluntatem
timentium se faciet /" What a motive for con
fidence ! What encouragement for the victim
of desires !
St. Mechtilde, hearing those words, " Omne
genu flectatur," etc., sung at Holy Mass, ex
pressed the following desire to Our Lord : " Oh,
if I had only the power, how I would have Thee
humbly adored, my most sweet and faithful
Friend, by Heaven, earth, Hell, and all creatures."
He answered her with kindness : " Ask Me to
fulfil thy desires Myself, for every creature is con
tained in Me ; and in offering to My Father the
different tributes of religious worship, I supply
for all that may be wanting in creatures with
regard to the accomplishment of these duties.
This is what I now wish to do upon thy invitation,
and thus realize thy desire. My love cannot
endure that the desire of a faithful soul should
remain imperfect when she is unable to accomplish
it herself"
We see here that the Victim of desires is evi
dently pleasing to the Heart of Jesus, and united
with Him in the sacrifice of praise. Her desire
is universal, embracing Heaven and earth, Hell,
and all creatures. It is perfect, for this Heart
supplies for anything which might be wanting,
and it becomes realized by His all-powerful
goodness, which assures its efficacy.
Twenty-First Day 137
2. JESUS ACCEPTS THE DESIRES OF HlS
FRIENDS AS IF THEY WERE REALIZED.— This is
the title of one of St. Mechtilde's chapters.
St. Gertrude also teaches how Our Lord accepts
" the will for the deed." Praying one day for a
person who was unable to accomplish a work
which had been enjoined, He enlightened her
by this response : " The goodwill of that man in
undertaking this work to fulfil my desire, not
withstanding the difficulties he meets with, is most
agreeable to Me, and I accept that goodwill for
the deed. Even if he be unable to succeed, I will
reward him as if he had accomplished it."
The Heart of Jesus may even derive more
glory from a desire the realization of which we
have sacrificed to Him, than from the satisfac
tion we should have felt in seeing that desire
fulfilled.
At the approach of some great festival, St.
Gertrude, feeling ill, offered to Our Lord her
wish to celebrate it with fervour. She asked
that her infirmity might be no impediment >
submitting herself at the same time, and above
all, to His good pleasure. Upon this, she
received from Him the following answer :
" // / grant thy desire, I will follow thee to
whatever bed of -flowers thou mayest choose ;
whereas, if thou dost sacrifice it to My good
pleasure, thou wilt follow Me to the garden of
delights wherein I find My greatest happiness ;
for I shall be better pleased with thee if thou dost
experience the desire and the privation, than if
thou gainest thy wish and enjoy est this pleasure."
We will cite other examples : The Saint, on
one occasion, being animated with an ardent
desire to love God, said to Our Lord : " Oh, how
I long to be consumed with so burning a love
138 Love, Peace, and Joy
that my heart could liquefy itself and be lost
entirely in Thee!" He answered her: " Thy
desires are the fire which so liquefy thy soul that
My love may absorb it into My Divine Heart !"
These words made her understand that a
goodwill insures to a man the full effect of
desires which have God for their object.
As St. Mechtilde was preparing for Holy Com
munion, Our Lord said to her : " Offer Me in thy
heart a desire which includes all the desires and
all the love which men have ever been able to offer
Me, and I will accept this desire of thy heart as
if thou really hadst such an intense and wide
spread love."
O most sweet Jesus ! how good and generous
is Thy Heart ! Thou art content with the prep
aration of our poor hearts, and satisfiest all
their desires. " Desiderium pauperum exaudivit
Dominus /" Oh, grant that we may always act
towards Thee according to the liberality of Thy
generous Heart, regulating our confidence in
Thee according to Thy goodness, and not accord
ing to our own ! Oh yes ; enlarge our hearts
by holy desires ; by these we become, as it were,
all-powerful, since we are enabled to offer God
a love as intense and as great as we wish, to
exercise our zeal for others in the most ardent
and universal manner, and, to a certain degree,
give God the same glory, and obtain from His
liberality the same rewards as the Saints* whose
love was so great, and the Apostles, who gained
for Him so many souls ! Let us remember that
several Saints became such only by their prayers
and by the preparation of their heart — St. John
Berchmans, for example ; the Ven. Pere de la
Colombiere,; the Blessed Peter Faber, etc.
3. ATONEMENT BY DESIRES. — With the Heart
Twenty-First Day 139
of Jesus, desires may produce even a retro
active effect, and be of full use in the life of repara
tion. One day St. Mechtilde wasjjpraying for
a person in affliction who could not restrain her
tears. She had shed so many during five years
that, without the assistance of Divine mercy,
she would have lost either her sight or her
senses ; but upon the instant prayers of the
Saint, Our Lord granted her the deliverance of
this poor soul, adding : " Tell her from Me to
ask Me to be so merciful as to transform all these
tears in such a way as though they had been shed
through feelings of love and contrition." The
Saint, wondering at the goodness of Our Lord,
who would thus change into holy tears those
which had been shed so uselessly, He said to her :
" Let her only believe in My goodness, and I will
do to her according to her belief."
" 0 marvellous condescension of Divine
goodness !" exclaims here the tranocriber of
St. Mechtilde 's book. " You who read that
God has, by means of His 1 .ovedt granted such
graces to men, I counsel you to appropriate
them to yourselves; Jor God (as He has Him
self revealed] hears those who rejoice in the
favours bestowed upon others, and hope to
receive similar ones themselves."
We can apply this retro-active effect of desires
to all the losses we have sustained with regard
to prayer, good works, and sufferings. Let us
offer to the Heart of Jesus all that we have
done through imperfect or purely natural inten
tions, with an ardent desire and a full confidence
that He will, through the abundance of His
merits, supply for all, as though it had been
done according to His Divine Will. He will take
pleasure in repairing our losses, in filling up the
140 Love, Peace, and Joy
voids of our miseries, and completing our works,
in proportion to the measure of our faith.
St. Gertrude teaches us also how to find in
the life of desires a means of universal repara
tion as easy for us as it is glorious for Divine
mercy. Her practice for the Feast of the
Epiphany shows clearly how desire transforms
the most defective things into precious pearls,
be it for ourselves or for others. Gertrude
wished to offer Our Lord presents similar to
those of the three Kings, and, finding nothing
about her worthy of Him, she began with an
anxious desire^ to travel in spirit round the
whole world, gathering up all the false myrrh,
false incense, false gold, she could find — that is
to say, all the sufferings endured without resig
nation to God's Will, all the prayers offered
with sentiments He could not accept, and all
the affections which He would deem inordinate.
Transforming all these in her heart, by the
ardour of her desires, as by the fire of a crucible,
she presented them to Our Lord as a choice
myrrh, an incense of sweet odour, and as
precious gold ; and He, taking the greatest
pleasure in this labour of His spouse, gladly
received her offerings, and* inserting them into
His royal diadem, like precious stones, said to
her : " Behold the pearls which thou hast just
presented to Me. I accept them with so much
pleasure, on account of their rareness, that, in
memory of thy exceeding love, I will bear them
on the diadem which encircles My brow, in pres
ence of the whole court of Heaven."
Oh, what excellent means of reparation are
offered to us by Jesus in these practices which
He taught to His well-beloved Gertrude, for
herself and for the entire Church ! Let us
Twenty-First Day 141
gather up all the inutilities, all the deceptions
of our life, cast them, by holy desires, into the
burning furnace of the Heart of Jesus, and all
will be purified, transformed, and sanctified :
' ' Excoquam ad purum scoriam tuam" — I will clean
purge away thy dross (Isa. i. 25). Let us even
cast therein, by the desires of ardent charity,
the many prayers, affections, and sufferings
which are not for God throughout the whole
universe, and thus offer, by this Divine Heart,
a glorious reparation to that jealous God, Who
ought to be the end and aim of all things. We
shall thus procure a sweet consolation for our
Divine Saviour, Who complains of the inutility
of His Blood and the loss of His grace ; and we
shall also add some precious pearls to the crown
of Divine mercy.
TWENTY-SECOND DAY
THE VICTIM OF DESIRES— Continued
NIVERSAL AND PERPETUAL DESIRES
FOR EVERYONE. — On one occasion, as
they read in the Gospel the words, " Simon,
amas me P . . . Pasce oves meas " — Simon,
lovest thou Me ? . . . Feed My sheep (John
xxi. 17), St. Mechtilde was led in spirit before
the face of Our Lord, Who said to her : " I am
about to question thee, as I questioned My Apostle,
and thou wilt answer in the sincerity of thy heart :
Is there anything in the world so dear to thee that
thou wouldst not abandon it for My love?" She
replied : " Lord, Thou knowest that if all the
world, with all it contains, were mine, I would
abandon all for Thy love." And Jesus accepted
her goodwill, as if she had really been mistress
of the whole world, and had sacrificed it entirely
for Him. Interrogating her a second time. He
said : "7s there any labour or act of obedience
that thou wouldst refuse to accomplish for My
love?" She answered: " Lord, with Thee, and
for Thee, I am ready to endure every suffering."
Again Jesus accepted her goodwill as if it
had really had effect. Then He added : " 7
recommend to thee in return three classes of men :
the simple-minded, represented by the simplicity
of the lamb, that thou mayest teach them My love ;
142
Twenty-Second Day 143
the afflicted, and despised, typified by its meekness ;
the universal Church, in fine, represented by the
sheep, that by thy persevering desires and in
defatigable prayers thou mayest draw down upon
her My mercy."
Behold, the Saint thus intrusted by Our Lord
to provide for the wants of the entire Church,
" by her persevering desires and indefatigable
prayers" and assured, at the same time, that
her wishes to labour and suffer for that Church
will be accepted as though followed by their
effect, The victim of the Sacred Heart, who
would consume herself in the service of souls
through love for Him, may certainly apply the
same promises to herself, in purposing the same
expansion, ardour, and sincerity in her desires.
This universal desire of St. Mechtilde for the
good of all was at the same time the perpetual
desire of her whole life. It accompanied her even
to her agony, as we learn from St. Gertrude,
who saw her at that dread moment, standing
before the wound of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
exhaling into Him, as by each of her respira
tions, earnest desires for all the living and the
dead ; and these desires, penetrating the
Saviour's Heart, caused torrents of grace to
flow over the whole Church.
Her perseverance in these holy desires to the
very end merited for her, from the generous
Heart of Jesus, a singular and truly admirable
recompense. Causing the measure of His
bounties to overflow, as St. Mechtilde had done
that of her desires, He willed that, on the day
of her death none of those in their agony through
out the Church, for whom she had prayed,
should be lost, and granted to all who died the
grace of a happy death. He permitted none
144 Love, Peace, and Joy
of those who resisted every grace to die that day ;
and of the souls in Purgatory (for whom she
had also prayed so much), He delivered an in
numerable multitude ; while those whom justice
prevented Him from releasing entirely, He
introduced into a place of repose and consola
tion.
Oh, that we could thus forget ourselves to the
end, and live only to desire the glory of God and
the salvation of souls ! Let us continually
inhale this desire from the Holy Ghost, and
breathe it forth into the Heart of Jesus, in
order to draw unceasing floods of grace upon
the whole universal Church.
St. Gertrude gives us another example of
universal and perpetual desires rendered effi
cacious by Divine generosity. On the Festival
of St. James the Greater, this glorious Apostle
appeared to her wonderfully adorned with all
the merits of the pilgrims who go to venerate
his relics. Full of admiration, she asked Our
Lord why He rendered the sepulchre of this
Saint more glorious than that of the princes of
the Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. He
answered : " It is on account of the burning zeal
by which he was inflamed for the salvation of
sends. He was not able to convert multitudes, as
he wished for My glory ; but his desire being
impeded by a premature death, had, in My sight,
the merit of a long life. I compensate him by
the innumerable conversions which now take place
at his tomb, and from the beginning I granted him
the recompense of all the merits of the pilgrims
who go there in such numbers." What an en
couraging lesson for the victim of desires !
God looks at the heart, the intention, the wish.
He gives fruit to our zeal, not in proportion to
Twenty-Second Day 145
our apparent success and exterior works, but
according to what we would fain have done,
supposing a premature death or insurmountable
difficulties had not impeded the execution. Let
us often remember that by our desires we may
thus amass, in a short space of time, the merits
of a long life, and acquire, before God, all the
merits of the souls we had wished to gain for
Him.*
5. How DESIRE OF THE CROSS CONSOLES THE
HEART OF JESUS. — When there was once ques
tion of sending several nuns to found a new
monastery, St. Gertrude, whose only wish was
to please God, prostrated before her Crucifix,
and, weak as she was, offered herself to Him
for this new foundation, with a longing desire
to sacrifice herself for His glory.
Jesus appeared so touched by her goodwill
that He came down from the Cross to embrace
her tenderly, and, pressing her to the wound
of His adorable Heart, said, with exceeding joy :
" Welcome, My beloved spouse, thou who art the
soothing balm of My wounds and the consolation
of all My sorrows." By these words Gertrude
understood that when we offer our will without
reserve to please God, notwithstanding the know
ledge we may have of any suffering that such
offering will entail, Our Lord accepts it as if,
during His Passion, the sweetest balm had been
applied to all His wounds.
Gertrude then asked Him why He had per-
* It is also to be noticed that St. Gertrude attributes
the great glory of St. Dominic in Heaven to the fervour
of his desires while on earth. We may remember how
he confidentially avowed to the Prior of Callamar that
he had never asked anything from Our Lord and been
refused.
146 Love, Peace, and Joy
mitted her, in the first place, to long for death,
then to desire to sacrifice herself in different ways
for His glory, and all without result. Jesus
answered : " / take pleasure in suggesting to My
elect sacrifices which they will never have to make,
in order to test their fidelity to Me, and to multiply
their rewards ;for I count all their good desires as if
they were really fulfilled."
6. THE DESIRE TO FEEL DESIRES. — St. Ger
trude, being distressed one day that she could
not excite in her heart as ardent a desire as she
wished for the glory of God, received an assur
ance from Heaven that He is fully satisfied
when anyone, unable for more, has at least the
will to feel a strong desire ; and that in His
sight this desire will be counted as though it
were as great as one wished it to be.
Let us endeavour to animate our desires with
the breadth, intensity, and perfection necessary
to enable us to offer to God all the glory He
claims, and win for the Church all the graces
we can gain for her. It will then be done
to us according to our desires : " Concupivit
anima mea desiderare" O Lord, I wish to be
animated with desires like to those of Thy
Divine Heart. I appropriate them to myself
in all their intensity, wishing to be all desire
with Thee, for the glory of Thy Father and the
salvation of souls !
7. DESIRES DRAWN FROM THE HEART OF
JESUS. — St. Gertrude invites us to draw (as she
herself did) these holy desires from the Heart of
Jesus. Our Lord said also to St. Mechtilde,
with regard to a soul whom she recommended
to Him, and who prayed to have a heart both
loving and full of desire : " Let her seek in My
Divine Heart whatever she wishes to have, asking
Twenty-Second Day 147
it from Me as a child asks his father for all he
wants. Let her especially draw from it the spirit
of desire."
PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. — We shall merely
add a few points to what has been said in the
reflections :
1. We will notice especially the effects pro
duced by the desire for suffering.
The sufferings of the present, received with
full desire, produce an entire effect of reparation
for the Church (see the Twentieth Day, p. 129).
Desires can produce, with regard to those that
are past, a wonderful retroactive effect of repara
tion (see p. 139). Future crosses, in fine, ac
cepted in advance with boundless desire,
become a chalice of inebriating delight for the
Heart of Jesus (p. 130), and a soothing balm for
His wounds (p. 145).
2. Two conditions are required : Confidence —
"Fiat tibi sicut credidisti " — As thou hast be
lieved, so be it done to thee (Matt. viii. 13).
Fidelity of the soul in doing whatever may
depend on her.
Let us not forget here and in other places
that when St. Gertrude speaks of the efficacy
of desires and the merit of dispositions, she
always supposes a goodwill and fidelity, and
her words should be understood only as regard
ing an efficacy proportioned to the degree of
grace and the co-operation of each soul.
3. St. Thomas admits in several places that,
before God, the desire and the disposition may
have as much merit as the reality ; that Abra
ham, for example, by his determination to
observe chastity, may have had a merit equal
to that of virgins in the new law ; and that a
Saint, martyr in desire only, may be higher
148 Love, Peace, and Joy
than one who really gained the crown of martyr
dom.
4. Summary : Our desires should be :
(i) Sincere ; (2) united to the Heart of Jesus ;
(3) unlimited, universal, perpetual, entire. Let
us, then, endeavour to acquire these dispositions.
They are neither difficult nor sad nor affrighting ;
they are, on the contrary, desirable, attractive,
encouraging, and enriching. Let us enter into
them fully by union with the Heart of Jesus,
and they will highly sanctify our lives, for His
glory and the salvation of souls. " Adaperiat
Dominus cor vestrum : ut serviatis illi corde
magno et animo volenti."
TWENTY-THIRD DAY
VICTIM OF PRAISE OF THE HEART OF
JESUS
ONE of the especial characteristics of
devotion to the Heart of Jesus, accord
ing to St. Gertrude, is Divine praise, the life of
praise, the sacrifice of praise — hostiam laudis —
i.e., the victim of praise. The spirit of praise
belongs very particularly to souls who devote
themselves to make reparation in our unhappy
century, when, as blasphemy is ever ascending;
the praises offered up by the friends of the
Heart of Jesus should form, as it were, a
heavenly concert, and be able to deaden the
infernal concert of His enemies. Yes, more and
more must the interior life drawn from the Heart
of Jesus manifest itself by Divine praise ; and
that life can scarcely be moulded in a better
school than that of St. Gertrude. Thus, we
willingly repeat those words of Father Faber :
" Gertrude was the special Saint of praise. . . .
Would that she could be in the Church once more
as she was in ages past, the doctress and the pro
phetess of the interior life " ("All for Jesus,"
chap. viii.).
According to St. Gertrude, the Victim of
Praise draws her life of praise from the
Sacred Heart of Jesus. With Him she continu-
149
150 Love, Peace, and Joy
ally offers the sacrifice of praise to atone for the
sins of the world ; she consumes herself with
Him on earth in this work of love, in order to be
united with Him in Heaven in everlasting praise.
i. PRAISE DRAWN FROM THE HEART OF
JESUS. — " One day, love taking possession of the
soul, conducted her to Our Lord, and she, leaning
over the wound of the Sacred Heart of Jesus^
Who was everything to her, drew from it a fruit
of exceeding sweetness, and raised it to her
mouth. It represented the eternal praises
issuing from that Divine Heart, from which
proceeds every praise given to God ; for it is the
pure and adorable source whence all good things
flow. The soul then drew forth from it a
second fruit — viz., that of thanksgiving " (St.
Mechtilde).
From this we at once see that Divine praise
can be distinguished from thanksgiving. The
first, indeed, honours God in the gifts of His
bounty ; the latter honours Him rather in Him
self, in His infinite perfections, hi His sovereign
and admirable works.
St. Thomas seems to say that praise is, in
general, honour rendered to a person on account
of his skill in choosing means to attain his ends.
Keeping this in view, who is more worthy of
praise than Divine Wisdom, Who accomplishes
His designs with infinite power, and arranges
with infinite sweetness the means by which to
do so ?
Praise, however, may also be considered in
practice as including thanksgiving, as well as
every word that honours and is addressed to
God, whether it relates to His own intrinsic
perfections or to the benefits He confers on our
selves or on His other creatures.
Twenty-Third Day 151
Divine praise, which should fill the soul —
repleatur laude — is drawn (according to St. Ger
trude) by the Heart of Jesus from the Holy
Trinity, Who gives substantial, eternal, infinite
praise to Himself. From the adorable Trinity,
it flows by the Heart of the Incarnate Word
into that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then into
all the Angels and Saints, and lastly into every
creature in Heaven and earth. It rises again
to God by the Heart of Jesus, which is its centre,
and He offers to His Father the worship of all
creation.
Our Lord shows to St. Mechtilde also in what
way His Divine Heart supplies for our in
capacity to offer due praise to God. As the
words " In excelso throno " were sung during
Holy Mass, she saw Jesus sitting on the altar
as on His throne, saying : " Behold Me here,
with all My Divine power, to heal the wounds
which make you lament," and she said to herself :
" Oh, if He would offer a full and perfect praise
to God the Father for me, I should be far more
content." Then Jesus said to her : " This bewail-
ment, this sorrow of thy heart in never being able
to 'praise God as much as thou dost desire, is
precisely the wound I wish to heal, in supplying
Myself for thy incapacity, and offering to the
Father that full and perfect praise which thou
dost desire"
The Heart of Jesus thus offers to God the
Father a perpetual praise for us. A person
complaining to St. Mechtilde of the pain she
felt in not glorifying God as thoroughly as she
wished, the Saint prayed for her, and, in doing
so, felt very sad at the thought that she was in
the same case herself. But Our Lord said to
her : " Do not distress thyself, My beloved ; all
152 Love, Peace, and Joy
that I have is thine. When thou wishest to praise
Me, and seest that thou canst not offer Me accord
ing to thy desire a perpetual praise, merely say :
' Good Jesiis, supply for me, I beseech Thee, all
that is wanting,' and I will at once offer this per
petual praise to God for thee. Thou must tell the
person for whom thou prayest to do the same, and
if she do so a thousand times a day, a thousand
times also will I offer for her this praise to God
the Father ; for My love never wearies."
Here is a way for us to praise the mercies of
God a thousand times a day and for ever. Oh,
if we could understand the treasures placed at
our disposal by the Divine Heart of Jesus !
We have already seen how Our Lord promised
to St. Gertrude also to offer for her a tribute of
universal praise, in the name of all mankind,
and thus fulfil her intense desire of doing so,
"as if nothing had been wanting." He even
added that He prepared for her the reward of
this perpetual and universal praise, as ii she
had offered it herself, with all the perfection
that she wished.
Oh, what an encouragement to a life of praise !
Oh, if we could understand that infinitely
thoughtful love, which makes use of these
devices, that unbounded tenderness which the
Heart of Jesus conceals under these promises,
in order to draw us to a life of praise !
2. PRAISE OF ATONEMENT. — One day St. Mech-
tilde, when praying for a man in affliction, saw
him before Our Lord, Who said : " 7 now pardon
him all his faults ; but he must repair his sins
and negligences by praise. Thus, when the words,
' Per quern Majestatem tuam laudant Angeli ' —
By Whom the Angels praise Thy Majesty — are
said at Mass, let him praise Me in union with
Twenty-Third Day 153
that Divine praise by which the Holy Trinity
praises itself ; that -praise which flows first into
the Blessed Virgin Mary, then into all the Angels
and Saints. Let him afterwards recite a ' Pater '
in union with that praise which from Heaven,
earth, and all creatures reascends to God. Let
him, in fine, pray that his supplication and his
praise may be accepted in My Name, since it is
I alone Who can have them graciously received
by My Divine Father. Thus all his sins and
negligences will be repaired by Me : Whoever
acts in like manner, let him piously expect to
receive the same grace ; for it is impossible that
anyone should not obtain whatever he had believed
and hoped would be granted."
This doctrine ought not to surprise us. Per
fect atonement, according to St. Thomas, con
sists in offering to God something which gives
Him more pleasure than the offence has caused
Him pain. God is more sensitive to love than
to insult, and the praise which we thus offer
Him by the Heart of His Divine Son is incom
parably more agreeable to Him than our sins
are offensive. Besides, praise, when truly and
seriously united to that Sacred Heart, neces
sarily includes humility and the recognition of
our faults, as well as love and contrition — senti
ments which by themselves repair those faults,
and are able when sufficiently intense, to
expiate entirely the punishments due to our
sins.*
* It seems to us that the fundamental reason of this
doctrine is that every sin includes an act of pride —
that is, the irregular desire of our personal excellence,
jealousy of God's pre-eminence, and revolt against it.
Now, praise includes the precisely contrary acts — viz.,
the desire of His joy and glory, and submission to His
excellence. Hence it atones at once.
154 Love, Peace, and Joy
Holy Scripture likewise shows us how the
sacrifice of praise is the most agreeable to God
and the most efficacious to deliver us from
sin.
The entire forty-ninth Psalm aims at teaching
us that, at God's judgment, the sacrifice of
praise will insure our salvation. Exterior
sacrifices are little, but that of the heart, that
of praise, inasmuch as it includes the sacrifice
of love and submission to God, will be accepted
as a sweet odour, and obtain for us His mercy.
This is the meaning of those passages : " Non
accipiam de dom-o tua vitulos. . . . Immola Deo
sacrificium laudis. . . . Sacrificium laudis hono-
rificabit me, et illic iter quo ostendam illi salutare
Dei " — / will not take calves out of thy house.
. . . Offer to God the sacrifice of praise. . . . The
sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me : and there is
the way by which I will show him the salvation of
God (Ps. xlix.).
Laudetur Jesus Christus in ceternum. Let us
give ourselves now to a life of praise, that we
may consummate ourselves in it for all eternity.
Praise by the Heart of Jesus, praise for ourselves
and praise for others. Perpetual, universal,
loving, and atoning praise, now and for ever.
Laudetur Jesus Christus in ceternum /
PRACTICES. — In order to form ourselves to a
life of praise, let us meditate on the books of St.
Gertrude and St. Mechtilde,* who were especially
Saints devoted to praise. In no better school
could we imbibe this life, which so sweetly
associates the soul to the Angels, is so pleasing
to God, Whom it unceasingly glorifies, and so
useful to the Church, which has such need of
* Divine praise is, according to the translator, the
characteristic of St. Mechtilde.
Twenty-Third Day 155
victims of praise, to atone for the sins of man
kind.
Let us a thousand times a day entreat the
Sacred Heart of Jesus to supply for our imper
fect praise, so that a thousand times daily
we may offer to God, through Him, that sacri
fice of perfect praise which He desires above all.
St. Thomas teaches that " Jesus was prefigured
in the Old Temple by the two altars — that of holo
causts and that of incense," because it is by Him
that we ought to offer all our works to God.
First, works of penance, as though on the altar
of holocausts ; then on the altar of incense, the
more perfect sacrifice of our spiritual works, our
worship, praise, and desires. This last is the
sacrifice recommended by the Apostle : " Per
ipsum ergo offeramus hostiam laudis semper
Deo." Thus indeed does the victim of praise
offer Him her perpetual sacrifice as the most
perfect of all.
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY
THE UNIVERSAL AND PERPETUAL VICTIM
OF THE HEART OF JESUS, ACCORDING TO
ST. GERTRUDE
A NOTHER characteristic of the spiritu-
_/\ ality of St. Gertrude (is the universal in
tention. She takes from all to give to all. Her
heart grows large like that of the supreme
Victim, Who gave Himself without reserve for
the Redemption of all mankind ; and she ex
claims with the Royal Prophet, whose heart was
according to that of God, and as the great
Apostle, whose heart was the faithful echo of
that of Jesus : " Particeps ego sum omnium ;
omnibus debitor sum " (Ps. cxviii. ; Rom. i. 14).
Such should be the victim truly united to
the Heart of Jesus, devoted and generous like
Him, immolating herself for all, as He did on
Calvary ; uniting herself to all, as He does in
the Blessed Eucharist ; giving herself to all and
for ever, as Jesus does in Heaven.
i. THE VICTIM GIVES ALL. — She gives all to
all, and at all times, not only by prayer, but still
more by action and sacrifice. The Apostleship
of prayer, which, in uniting us to the intentions
of the Heart of Jesus, makes us pray for all,
is certainly a splendid work ; but we must
extend this same intention of zeal to all our
156
Twenty-Fourth Day 157
works and to all our sacrifices. Union with the
altar may help us to unite ourselves to the uni
versal action of the eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
Union with the Heart of Jesus, the Victim,
associates us with His Perpetual Sacrifice.
Let us remember that the human heart has
been formed upon the model of the Heart of
Jesus j for, in creating it, the Eternal Word
foresaw that He would one day appropriate it
to Himself by the Incarnation — " Christus cogi-
talatur homo futurus " — and He fashioned it so
that it could fulfil the Divine plan according to
which the Heart of Our Lord -was to be the
centre of all, receiving all from the members of
His mystic body, in order to give them all, and
thus unite the whole human race in Himself.
This is the reason why our human heart is in
like manner the centre of animal life for the
members of our body. Now, if by constant
union we dwell in the Heart of Jesus, having
one heart with Him as love demands, like Him,
with Him, and by Him, we shall receive all from
all, and in the same way give all to all. This
is what the most loving Master taught St. Ger
trude, and what she inculcates to others in
many of her writings.
2. THE VICTIM APPROPRIATES TO HERSELF
BY CHARITY THE GIFTS OF ALL.— St. Gertrude
first draws from the Blessed Trinity Itself praise,
thanksgiving, and joy, to spread them after
wards on all creation. We have already cited
examples of this, and could multiply them were
it necessary.
She next appropriates (as we have also
seen), by the bond of charity, the merits, praises,
graces, and other gifts of all the Saints, who
on their side willingly respond to her desires.
158 Love, Peace, and Joy
The following is one of the most remarkable
examples of this : On the Festival of the Assump
tion, Gertrude, as a preparation for Holy Com
munion, recited three times the " Laudate
Dominum omnes gentes " — Praise the Lord, all
ye nations (Ps. cxxxvi.). By the first she
asked (as usual)* all the Saints to offer their
merits to Our Lord for her, that they might
serve as her preparation ; by the second Laudate
she made the same petition to the Blessed
Virgin ; and by the third, to Jesus Himself.
She saw Our Lady rise at once, and approach
to offer for her to the Blessed Trinity the in
comparable merits which had raised her above
the Angels on the day of her Assumption. Then,
with a thoughtful kindness, Mary, quitting her
place, made a sign to Gertrude to draw near :
" Come," said she, " my beloved child ; take my
place, adorned with all that perfect virtue which
won for me the love of the adorable Trinity, that
so thou too mayest please Him like myself." And
Gertrude felt as though God took all His delight
in her, while the Angels and Saints approached
her to do Him homage. Having received Holy
Communion, she offered it to Our Lord, that
He might intensify the joy and glory of His
Blessed Mother in return for the merits which
she had bestowed upon her. Then Jesus, as
though offering a present to His most sweet
Mother, said : " See, My Mother, how I return
thee double of what is thine, without withdrawing
it from her, whom thou hast willed to favour with
it for My love."
In the same way Gertrude appropriated to
* Note this expression as usual, for there is here
question of the habitual practices of St. Gertrude and
the motives by which her spirituality was inspired.
Twenty-Fourth Day 159
herself, as we have seen (Chapter IX.), the
merits of her brethren on earth.
She did in like manner with all that is good
in the whole universe, as may be seen in that
beautiful prayer she so often recited : " I salute
Thee, Jesus, my Divine Spouse, adorned by Thy
wounds as with so many flowers ; with the delight,
which Thy Divinity finds in Thee, and with the
love of the whole universe, I salute and embrace
Thee, and kiss the wounds Thou hast received
through love " — Ave, Jesu, Sponse ftoride, cum
delectamento Divinitatis tuce, et ex affectu totius
universitatis te salutans amplector, et in vulnus
amoris te deosculor.
3. THE VICTIM GIVES TO EVERYONE. — This
is one of the principles, one of the habitual prac
tices of St. Gertrude. For example, when she
took any refreshment, she offered it to Our
Lord, with the intention of obtaining an in
crease of joy and grace for all creatures in
Heaven, on earth, and in Purgatory : " Ut cedat
in augmentum salutis omnibus ccelestibus, terres-
tribus et purgandis."
One night, when she was unable to sleep, she
was so tired that her strength was almost ex
hausted, and still love gave her sufficient power
to offer her infirmity, according to her custom, for
the salvation of all mankind.
She recommended the same practices to others
— viz., to endeavour with all their strength to
draw men to God, in union with that love which
induced Our Lord to redeem mankind ; and also
to offer all their actions in union with his Sacred
Heart for the salvation of the whole world.
St. Mechtilde acted in the same way, and
apparently it was at that time a general practice
of their community, one of the appointed regu-
160 Love, Peace, and Joy
lations in the school of St. Gertrude, who had
learned these practices from the Heart of Jesus,
and had been expressly recommended by Him
to communicate them to others.
One year, on the second Sunday of Lent, she
asked her Lord to make known to her some
thing that it would be profitable for souls to
observe during the coming week. He answered
her by the words of that day's Office : " Affer
mihi duos hcedos " — Bring Me two kids (Gen.
xxvii. 9) — that is to say, the body and soul of
human nature. She understood from this that
He wished her to make satisfaction for the whole
Church. She then recited five Our Fathers
in honour of His five wounds, to atone for all
the sins committed throughout the entire uni
verse by the five senses ; then three Paters
for all those committed by the three powers of
the soul, and offered these prayers to Our Lord
in union with that most perfect intention, which
drew this prayer from His Divine Heart as a
means of universal salvation. Jesus, fully
appeased and satisfied, blessed Gertrude in
return in an ineffable manner, bestowing on her
the benediction of the whole human race, so
that she received for herself alone all the bless
ings that He would have accorded to whatever
men had been as well prepared as she to receive
them.
Cannot we also try, by similar practices, to
obtain a similar blessing ?
The following Sunday Gertrude again asked
Our Lord to teach her some practice for the
ensuing week, and He answered : " Purchase,
by the recital of thirty-three Paters, all the merits
of the thirty-three years of My life, and let the
whole Church share this treasure with thee."
Twenty-Fourth Day 161
Having done this, she understood that the
entire Church was wonderfully adorned with
the fruit of the most perfect life of Jesus Christ.
At last, on the fourth Sunday, Our Lord said
to her : " Bring in all those whom, during the
'past week, thou hast adorned with the fruit of My
holy life, for they are to eat at My table."
"And how can I make them enter?" asked
Gertrude. She then told Him of that ardent
desire for the salvation of souls of which we have
spoken already. Jesus replied : " Thy desire
suffices for all," and at the same time He showed
her that the whole Church took place at His
table, adding : " It is thou who art to serve this
multitude to-day"
Then Gertrude devoutly kissed His five
wounds, to draw from them atonement for all
the sins of the world, supplement for every
shortcoming or negligence, and an abundance
of every grace. Our Lord granted her petitions
under the form of the five loaves mentioned in
the day's Office, which He blessed in giving
thanks to God, and gave to her to be distributed
to all the Church. He taught her by this that
when any action, even the most trivial, is done
for the welfare of the Church, were it only the
recital of a Pater or Ave, He receives it as the
fruit of His holy Humanity, and, giving thanks
to His Divine Father, blesses it, and, multiply
ing it by this benediction, distributes it to the
universal Church. Everyone can adopt the
same practices as St. Gertrude, " and may count
on receiving a similar grace from the mercy of
God"
May the Heart of Jesus give us also to under
stand, like St. Gertrude, how grateful these
practices are to God, to whom they offer a
162 Love, Peace, and Joy
tribute of universal glory, in realizing the Royal
Prophet's desire : "In omni loco dominationis
ejus, benedic, anima mea, Domino "- -" In every
place of His dominion, 0 my soul, bless thou the
Lord" (Ps. cii. 22). — and the prayer of the
Church, that we may render thanks to God
everywhere and for ever — " semper et ubique " ;
may He give us to understand what treasures
they are for our own souls, since He wjll not fail
to render to us in like measure by making us
participate in the merits of all others ; and also
how profitable they are to our brethren, who by
them are aided and relieved.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. To endeavour,
occasionally at least, to make use of these prac
tices of Gertrude.
2. We may in this find assistance in the ex
cellent little book entitled " Prayers of St. Ger
trude."
3. We must remember that these practices,
based as they are on the dogma of the Com
munion of Saints, can be efficacious only in
proportion to our dispositions, and should very
especially be accompanied by humility, which
will banish all danger of illusion or spiritual
pride.
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY
THE LIFE OF JOY IN THE HEART
OF JESUS, ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE
i. A LIFE OF JOY is THE MOST DELIGHTFUL
</\ FRUIT OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED
HEART OF JESUS. — In the vision to which we
have already referred, Our Lord, having allowed
St. Mechtilde to gather in His Divine Heart the
sweet fruits of praise and thanksgiving, allowed
her also to gather another and a still more
precious one — that of spiritual joy. He said
to her : " / also expect from thee a more excellent
fruit than all the rest." She answered : " What
is this fruit, 0 God, Thou dearest object of my
love ?" He replied : " It is holy joy, by which
thou wilt pour out in Me alone all the delights
of thy heart." " Oh, My only Beloved, how
can I do that ?" Jesus answered : " My love
will accomplish it in thee" Then, in a transport
of gratitude, she exclaimed : " Yes, yes, love,
love, love." And He continued : " The love of
My Heart will be everything to thee ; it will pro
vide for thy wants, like a tender mother, lest thy
joy be diminished, and thou shalt incessantly
draw from it interior consolation and unspeakable
satisfaction"
According to St. Gertrude, also, joy is one of
the especial characteristics of devotion to the
163
164 Love, Peace, and Joy
Sacred Heart. She found therein the " science
of jubilation," as Holy Scripture terms it. She
wished to serve God with joy, and take continual
delight in Him, according to the desire of His
own most loving Heart. It is always under this
aspect that her book teaches us to consider
devotion to that Sacred Heart, and is it not
also under this aspect that we ought to pre
sent it to the children of our century, who
are so weak in virtue, so discouraged, and so
egoistical ?
Must we not attract them by joy, in order to
lead them to its source — viz., to the Heart of
Jesus : fons totius consolationis ; to Him Who is
the essential joy of God the Father ? Oh,
happy are the souls who come to this school to
learn therein the science of jubilation ! — " Bea-
tus populus qui scit jubilationem /" (Ps. Ixxxviii.
16). Despite their weakness, they will no longer
fear to take up the yoke which that Sacred
Heart will render light and easy. They will
leave without regret the false joys of earth to
draw true delights from the fonts of the Saviour.
Sacrifice will no more dismay, nor the Cross
even appal them, for the unction of grace and
the attractions of love will sweeten their bitter
ness and imbue all with gladness.
" We only do that well which we do with joy " —
cum delectatione (St. Thomas). If, then, we
wish to serve God and love our neighbour well,
we must manifest our joy in the service we render
to Him and to them — " servite in Icztitia." Oh,
let us do this, and not change the nature of
things — God is joy ; true devotion is joy ; love
is joy ; sacrifice is the source of joy ; the Cross
itself is the condition of solid joy. Let us,
then, open wide our hearts. It is joy which
Twenty-Fifth Day 165
invites us. Press forward, and fear nothing.
Let us always rejoice and ever advance in love
and in joy.
2. LIFE OF JOY, THE CONDITION AND RESULT
OF THE FRIENDSHIP OF OUR LORD. — St. Ger
trude, being very infirm, several persons advised
her to forego for a time the delights of con
templation, until she had recovered her health,
and she, always preferring to follow the judg
ment of others, acquiesced to their desire, on
condition, however, that they would allow her
the pleasure of decorating the pictures of the
Cross of Jesus, and the lively joy she ex
perienced in thus consoling her beloved Spouse.
One night, not being able to sleep, she quietly
occupied herself in preparing with straws the
little tomb in which the Crucifix was to be
placed on Good Friday. The God of goodness
Who takes pleasure in the most trivial acts of
those who love Him, bent over her, and said,
" Delight in the Lord, My beloved, and He will
give thee the requests of thy heart," teaching her
by these words, that when a soul takes delight
in Him, whether in joyously accomplishing
what regards His service, or in seeking some
little natural pleasure in things that refer to
Him, He, Who is full of kindness, looks at her
with complacency, rejoices in her as a father
who finds happiness in that of his children, and
is ready to grant her whatever she may desire,
that so her joy may be full.
Gertrude then said to Him : "And what glory
canst Thou derive, 0 most loving God, from a joy
in which nature has more share than the soul P"
Jesus answered : " Does not an avaricious
usurer take advantage of every occasion for in
creasing his capital? Well, I, Who have re-
i66 Love, Peace, and Joy
solved to find my delight in thee, am much more
eager not to lose anything of what thou givest Me
with the wish to afford Me pleasure and win My
favour, were it but a simple thought or a move
ment of thy little finger.
St. Gertrude replied : " If Thy immense good
ness deigns to take such satisfaction in these trifles,
how much more wilt Thou be pleased with the
little poem I composed in order to console Thee
for the sufferings of Thy Passion?" And Jesus
responded : " / take as much pleasure in it as
one whom a friend, with the most affectionate
caresses, led into a beautiful garden, to make him
breathe the softest air, delight his eye with the
sight of various flowers, charm his ear with the
sound of sweet music, and refresh him with fruits
of exquisite taste. I will return thee faithfully
joy for joy, pleasure for pleasure, consolation
for consolation. I will act in like manner
towards those who read thy book with the same
dispositions as thou hadst when composing it."
Such is the friendship of Jesus. Such is joy !
Oh, why should we not act like Gertrude in little
things as well as in great ? Let us treat with
Jesus as with a friend, gladdening Him by our
joy, winning His love to us by the delight which
we take in Him !
St. Thomas clearly shows that joy is the
condition, as well as the result, of friendship.
The friend, says he, finds his pleasure and his
joy in the company of his friend — convivit ei
delect abiliter ; and shares his joys — in eisdem de-
lectatur. These are two indispensable conditions
of friendship. He shows also that joy is the
direct result of love, and that from a triple
point of view. If I love God with a real love
of benevolence, I rejoice to know that He
Twenty-Fifth Day 167
possesses all that I can wish for Him. If I love
Him with a true love of union, I rejoice, that
by charity, He is in me and I in Him. If I love
Him with a love of concupiscence, I rejoice to
know that He gives Himself, and will give
Himself, entirely to me for all eternity.*
This is love — true love. Let us receive it
with open hearts — dilate them in joy, for joy
and expansion are the same thing, according
to the holy Doctor, f Let them be enlarged,
and full of love and joy ; then give to Jesus as
much of both as they are able to contain. And
beware of sadness, for it, on the contrary,
straightens the heart and renders it less able
to love, in diminishing and destroying its power
of affection. . . . Fly, fly from sadness ; for
it can only harm us and injure the interests of
the Heart of Jesus — " Fuge tristitiam, non est
utilitas in ilia."
3. A LIFE OF JOY is INSEPARABLE FROM A
LIFE OF SACRIFICE. — St. Thomas proves that
joy is the natural effect of true devotion, because
true devotion — viz., real devotedness or a life
of sacrifice — separates the soul from the things
of earth which defile and embarrass it, and
unites it to God, the essential source of all joy.
A life of sacrifice would soon become insupport
able for our weakness, were it not sustained by
holy joy ; and that would not be of long dura
tion were it not nurtured by a life of sacrifice.
We must give ourselves joyously to God,
* The fundamental reason is that love makes the
heart aspire after an object, the possession of which
renders it content, so that it dilates, according to its
capacity, in order to receive it. This contentment and
dilatation constitute joy.
t " Dilatare, latum facere ; l&titia, latum facit " (St.
Thomas) ,
i68 Love, Peace, and Joy
because He loves offerings made to Him with
gladness — " hilaremdatorem" ; and must accom
pany our sacrifices with simplicity of heart and
joyous words, " Icstus obtuli universa," for
these will please Him more than the gifts them
selves. He will return us joy for joy, or, rather,
as He has promised, the hundredfold, to en
courage us in our sacrifices and enkindle us
more and more with His love.
Gertrude performed all her actions with a
joyous heart, thus increased their merit before
God, and gave to the most trivial crosses
the weight and value of great ones. Our Lord
congratulated her warmly for thus finding
satisfaction even in the most excruciating
arrangements of His Providence in her regard.
When fatigued by the sins of men, He came
to rest in her heart. He would send her some
suffering of body or mind in expiation of those
sins, and she accepted it with so much joy and
gratitude that His Heart, consoled and rejoiced,
was quite ready to pardon.
Thus, gladly giving to Jesus whatever He
asked, and refusing Him no sacrifice, Gertrude
deserved that He should refuse nothing to her,
and should pour into her soul, by an abundance
of Divine grace, a copious measure of holy joy.
Let us imitate her example, and refuse nothing
to love, gladly offering every sacrifice love may
claim, and then, on our part, let us ask, ask
with confidence, for Jesus will refuse none of
our petitions, -rand our joy will be full — " Ut
gaudium vestrum sit plenum."
4. UNIVERSAL AND PERPETUAL JOY, DRAWN
BY GERTRUDE FROM THE HEARTS OF JESUS AND
MARY, AND FROM ALL THE SAINTS. — Gertrude
drew her spiritual joy from the Divine Heart,
Twenty-Fifth Day 169
its inexhaustible source ! One of her favourite
practices was to console and gladden Our Lord
with the delights of His Divinity— " Cum delec-
tamento Dimnitatis Tuce." She loved also to
pour out this joy from the Divine Heart upon
all creatures in Heaven, on earth, and in Purga
tory, and then to make the sweet concert of
universal joy remount to Him Who takes delight
in the works of His hands — " Lcetdbitur in
operibus suis."
Gertrude thus, on the least occasions, gave
continual pleasure to Our Lord. If, for ex
ample, she took any refreshment, it was with
the intention of giving comfort at the same
time to Our Lord and to all His creatures. The
little pleasures also which Providence multiplies
on our path, became for her sources of universal
joy. Why should we not adopt these easy and
consoling practices ?
Nor could Gertrude forget that other source
of holy joy, the Immaculate Heart of Mary —
" Causa nostrce l&titicz" Our Lord had taught
her especially how to prepare for Him a joyous
dwelling in Holy Communion, by appropriating
to herself the immense joys of His most Blessed
Mother's heart ; and Mary herself took pleasure
in communicating to her cherished daughter not
only her merits and virtues, but the particular
joys which, in the different mysteries of her life,
inundated her soul and made her exult in God.
Finally, Gertrude drew joy from the heart of
all the Saints. On several occasions Our Lord
had shown her how, by rejoicing in the benefits'
granted to His elect, we merit for ourselves an
increase of eternal happiness, and illuminate
our souls here below With a reflection of the
glory of God in His Saints.
170 Love, Peace, and Joy
One day also, when St. Mechtilde was re
joicing very particularly in the favours Jesus
had bestowed on St. Agnes, she saw that
glorious martyr clothe her with her own merits,
and Our Lord taught her that by the joy we
take in the graces granted to the Saints, we
appropriate their merits, in a certain degree, to
ourselves.
These practices open to us as many sources
of joy as we have Saints to honour during the
year. Their joys become our joys, their graces
our graces, their glory our glory. Oh love !
love of Jesus and His Saints ! love and joy !
why do our hearts not open wide to receive
you ? We are surrounded with love and joy,
what have we to fear ? Yes, let us open wide
our hearts in love and joy — " Dilatamini et
vos /"
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Make frequent
acts of joy in the thought that God is ever
joyous, and that we are united to Him by love.
2. Offer all our sacrifices to Him with a joyous
heart.
3. Rejoice on all occasions at the happiness
of the Saints and the graces bestowed upon our
fellow-creatures.
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY
FRIENDSHIP WITH THE SAINTS IN THE
HEART OF JESUS
THE learned and pious Lansperges, in his
preface to the third book of St. Gertrude,
uses these remarkable words : " Gertrude mani
fests to us the exuberance of the love of the Heart
of Jesus, Who, in these latter days, compassion
ating human weakness, deigns to lavish on us His
gifts, the help of His Saints, and Himself without
reserve."
Here is one of the most precious advantages
of devotion to the Sacred Heart, as practised
by St. Gertrude. By it Jesus gives us His
Saints, with their worship of praise and their
love, that we may glorify Him ; their merits
and their virtues, that we may sanctify our
selves ; their intercession to encourage our
zeal ; their friendship, in fine, to console and
rejoice us.
And, in order to render this friendship more
intimate and more fruitful, He wills His Sacred
Heart to be its source and ever remain its
centre.
In it does St. Gertrude show us the fountain
of delights, where the Saints seek refreshment,
and invite us to join their company. That
Heart is also as an altar on which they offer
171
172 Love, Peace, and Joy
their prayers for us and the worship they pay
to God in our name. By its gentle beatings it
invites the Blessed to unite with it in thanking
and praising God for us ; transmits to them our
petitions, and, supplying for our weakness,
perfects the tribute of praise and thanksgiving
we wish to offer them.
Our Lord was everywhere accompanied by
His Saints, when he appeared to St. Gertrude,
consoling her and helping her with and by them,
and everywhere also did Gertrude glorify and
try to rejoice Him with them. She appro
priated their merits and graces to herself, as
she did those of the Heart of Jesus. It seemed
to her quite a natural and simple practice,
suitable to all, to seek their help in all our actions
and sacrifices, as well as in our prayers.
This friendship which Our Lord wishes us to
contract with the Saints, and of which His Heart
forms the sweet link, constitutes one of the
greatest resources of our weakness, one of the
most precious treasures of our poverty, and one
of the purest joys of our exile.
Let us open our hearts to this friendship which
the well-beloved of the Heart of Jesus inculcates
to us in so many ways ; let us be friends of the
Saints, because we are friends of the Sacred
Heart, and in order that by their assistance
we may become still more so. With regard to
zeal, let us form an alliance with them, that
they may help us in our combats with the
world, and, by fighting with us, render us
strong as that army in battle array, spoken
of in Holy Scripture, to which final victory is
assured.
With regard also to the eucharistic life so
especially that of the friends of the Sacred Heart,
Twenty-Sixth Day 173
let us be in union with the Blessed, that they
may aid us to pay homage to the King of kings,
to console and give joy to the dear Prisoner of
the Tabernacle, and even here on earth, render
to the hidden God the worship of love and praise
which is offered to Him in Heaven. Let us
invite them to assist at our solemn functions,
or, rather, ask them to aid us in celebrating in
our temples a continual festival for Jesus,
chanting with them the Alleluia of jubilation,
the Amen of praise, and thus making those
temples a foretaste of Heaven, while awaiting
the time when we may be received as friends
into the eternal tabernacles.
But let us see in detail in what consists this
holy friendship which the Heart of Jesus wishes
to contract between the Saints and us, and of
which it is the only source ?
According to St. Thomas, it is a reciprocal
love founded on a communication of super
natural goods. Now what communication or
interchange can there be between the Saints
and us ? What do they give us, and what do
we give to them ? We, as friends of the Sacred
Heart, give them all, and they give all to us.*
This is the highest degree of friendship, and
makes us, like Jesus Himself, the closest friends
— " maxime amicus " (St. Thomas).
THE FRIENDS OF THE SACRED HEART GIVE
ALL TO THE SAINTS. — St. Gertrude, in a most
luminous, encouraging way, teaches us how to
offer to the Saints a perfect worship of dulia
on the altar of the Heart of Jesus, and by uniting
* We must not forget, however, that there can be
question only of an accidental increase of happiness
for the Saints, and for us a participation in their merits
in proportion to our personal co-operation.
174 Love, Peace, and Joy
ourselves to Him, the Sovereign, Priest, and
Victim .
This worship may be included in the four ends
of sacrifice : (i) Adoration of God in His Saints,
and praise addressed to themselves. (2) Thank-
giving to God in the name of His Saints, and to
them for the graces they have obtained for us.
(3) Reparation offered to God for His Saints.
(4) Prayer by which to increase their joy and
their glory.
i. Adoration and Praise. — St. Gertrude shows
very particularly how the Saints are honoured
by Holy Communion. On the Festival of
St. James, she purposed to approach the Holy
Table as if making a pilgrimage in his honour.
She then offered to Our Lord His own adorable
Body, in order, to increase, in some degree, the
glory and joy of this illustrious Apostle, and
saw that St. James immediately placed himself
with her at the Holy Table, giving warmest
thanks to God for the gift St. Gertrude (by Holy
Communion) had offered in his honour, and
addressed to Him this prayer : " 0 Lord, deign,
in return, to grant to Thy spouse all the graces
Thou hast ever bestowed on any of the pilgrims
who have come to venerate my tomb."
Here, again, is an inexhaustible mine of
spiritual riches ; an easy way of acquiring, in
God's sight, the merit of pilgrimages sanctioned
by the Church, of honouring the Saints by the
Heart of Jesus Himself, beating in us at Holy
Communion, and of increasing the joy and
glory of those so dear to our God. Oh, how
sweet that thought ! We insignificant creatures
can give a greater joy and glory to the favourites
of God, to these princes of Heaven, who honour
us by their friendship, and show themselves so
Twenty-Sixth Day 175
full of gratitude ! What joy and glory for
ourselves !
2. Thanksgiving. — When preparing to receive
Holy Communion for the Feast of All Saints and
in their honour, Gertrude admired, and, to a
certain degree, envied the brilliant robes they
wore before God. As she grieved to see herself
without any adornment, the Holy Spirit in
spired her to render thanks to God for all those
whom He had raised to the sublime dignity of
virginity, and at once she saw her soul resplen
dent with the whiteness which distinguishes the
choir of virgins. She then gave thanks for
the holiness of Confessors and Religious, and
her soul shone with the colour hyacinth, which
characterizes them. Thanking God in the same
manner for the different orders of Saints, she
became clothed with the ornaments by which
each of them is adorned. Giving thanks, in
fine, for all the friends of God, she saw her soul
covered with a mantle of gold. She then
presented herself to Our Lord, Who, joyful to
see her thus adorned, said to all the court of
Heaven :
" See, My spouse, who comes to me decorated
with fringes of gold and every kind of ornament."
Then, stretching out His arm, He made her
repose on His Heart, lest she should be over
come by the torrent of delight which inundated
her soul.
We see here, again, a touching application x>f
one of the principles of St. Gertrude's spiritu
ality. When we thank God for graces bestowed
on others, with a confiding hope of receiving
the like ourselves, we merit in, some degree, to
obtain them.
3. Reparation. — St. Gertrude at these words
176 Love, Peace, and Joy
of the liturgy — " Omne genu fleet atur," etc.,
genuflected in the name of all the heavenly
court, to repair whatever might have been
wanting in the homage paid to God by the
Saints during life, and they showed her how
pleasing to them was the completion thus given
to the tribute of glory they wished to have offered
Him.
She also, in order to repair her own negligences
in honouring the Saints, made use of the Heart
of Jesus, which is the perfect organ of our acts
of religion, and He praised and thanked them,
in Gertrude's name, with the most wonderful
marks of affection.
4. Prayer. — One of St. Gertrude's sweetest
occupations was to pray for the increase of the
glory and joy of the Blessed, and endeavour
to obtain for them the completion of their desires,
as the Blessed Father Faber expresses it
in his pious " Memorial." We have already
seen several of her practices with regard to
this. We will add one more very touching ex
ample, which shows us how she received from
all, and gave to all, in and by the Heart of
Jesus.
One day, as, deeply conscious of her miseries,
she prepared for Holy Communion, she addressed
herself to her most loving Mediator, asking Him
to deign to present her Himself to His Divine
Father. Jesus, drawing Her to His Sacred
Heart, watered her like a young sapling, with
the lif egiving Blood, which flowed from His open
side, and then presented her with great rever
ence, to the Blessed Trinity, who received her
with ineffable tenderness and love. God the
Father attached to the highest of her mystic
branches all the fruit she would have been able
Twenty-Sixth Day 177
to produce, had she always been perfectly
dependent on His Almighty power. God the
Son and God the Holy Ghost attached in like
manner to the other branches all the fruit she
would have been able to produce, had she re
ceived the full influence of Divine Wisdom and
charity. Having been to Holy Communion, it
seemed to her that she took root in the Heart
of Jesus, and that His Blood, passing like a
Divine sap, through all her branches, caused her
to produce wonderful fruits, which the Heavenly
King held up for the admiration of His celestial
court. This spectacle gave them unspeakable
joy ; they all rose out of respect, and offered
their merits in the form of crowns, which they
suspended to the branches of this tree, as a
tribute of glory to Him Who, displaying thus
the riches of His mercy, filled them with new
delights. Then Gertrude entreated Our Lord
to perfect the fruits she ought to have produced
for all her friends in Heaven, on earth, and in
Purgatory, and immediately her good works,
symbolized by the fruits of the tree, began to
distil a liquor of extraordinary efficacy, one
portion of which, falling on the citizens of
Heaven, filled them with joy ; another portion,
flowing into Purgatory, gave relief to the souls
detained therein, and the third portion, spread
ing over the earth, increased in the just the
consolations of grace, and in sinners the bitter
sorrows of penance.
These are excellent practices, of which we,
too, may make use, by appropriating to our
selves the treasures of the Saints, in our prep
aration for Holy Communion, and thus uniting
ourselves more and more to them ; for it is
above all, in Holy Communion that the Heart
12
178 Love, Peace, and Joy
of Jesus forms the bond of union between them
and us. We may also in this way increase their
delight and their love ; in a word, return what
we have received from them, doubled in value
by the merits which the Heart of Jesus will
add to it in us.
TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY
FRIENDSHIP WITH THE SAINTS IN THE
HEART OF JESUS— Continued
'TpHE SAINTS GIVE FREELY TO THE FRIENDS
J^ OF THE SACRED HEART. — We can distin
guish in the works of the Saints, as in all good
works, three parts or different merits. The ex
piatory part, inasmuch as they expiate sin ; the
impetratory part, by which they obtain grace ;
the latreutic, by which they glorify God. We
say nothing of the meritorious part, properly
so called, which they cannot communicate to
others. St. Gertrude shows us how the Saints
share these different merits with the friends of
the Sacred Heart.
i. The Expiatory Part. — Our Lord taught
St. Mechtilde to have recourse to the Saints to
enable her to acquit all her debts to Divine
Justice. The Patriarchs offered for her their
ardent desires ; the Apostles, their labours ;
the martyrs, their sufferings ; the confessors,
their heroic virtues ; the virgins, their chastity.
They thus opened to her the treasury of the
Church's satisfactions, from which she could
freely draw for herself and for others.
" When praying for one of her Sisters who had
just died, St. Gertrude saw her leaning on the
Heart of Jesus, while all the Saints approached,
179
180 Love, Peace, and Joy
according to their different orders, and deposited
their satisfactions in the Saviour's bosom, to
supply for what was wanting in the merits of
this soul ; and Gertrude knew that they did so,
because the deceased, while on earth, had been
accustomed to ask them to assist, in this manner,
those who were dead. All the Saints, meantime,
testified a great affection for this soul, especially
the virgins, who treated her as their sister."
What immense riches are thus offered to us,
by which we may cancel the debts of the souls
in Purgatory ! This treasure of the satisfac
tions of the Blessed, from which the Church
draws her indulgences, they freely open to their
friends, now especially, as the end of time
draws nearer, for all these satisfactions must
then be exhausted or remain without profit for
eternity. Let us, then, make friends with the
Saints and our poverty, having at its disposal
unbounded riches, will be able to deliver souls
from Purgatory (thousands at a time), as
Gertrude and her Sisters did.
2. The Impetratory Portion. — " When St.
Mechtilde was in her agony, as the litanies were
being recited for her, St. Gertrude saw the different
choirs of Angels and orders of Saints rise, as
they were invoked, and joyously approach to
deposit all their merits, as rich presents, in the
Heart of Jesus, Who at once gave them to His
beloved in order to increase her joy and glory.
" The next day, when the Saint had gone to
rest, St. Gertrude saw that, after her enthronement
in Heaven, the Angels and Saints drew near to
Our Lord, and genuflected before Him, as princt
do when receiving the investiture of their got
from the hand of the emperor. The merits, whici
they had offered the previous evening to augmei
Twenty-Seventh Day 181
those of this well-beloved of Christ, were returned
to them as if doubled and ennobled by her own."
Here we have another and most profitable
method of spiritual trading. In appropriating
to ourselves the merits of the Saints we thereby
double their value, and the holy advocates,
through whose means this multiplication is
effected, get back, and in all justice, their
doubled merits with an increase of joy and glory,
while we, by friendship with them, double our
own resources, as well as their merits, their joy
and their glory. This is an accomplishment of
those words of Holy Scripture : "It is better, there
fore, that two should be together than one : for they
have the advantage of their society "—Habent enim
emolumentum societatis suce (Eccles. iv. 9).
3. The Latreutic Part. — St. Mechtilde, when
chanting at the office of St. Agnes, the respon
se ry (" Amo Christum " — / love Christ), in
teriorly complained to Our Lord that she had
not, like Agnes, loved Him with her whole
heart from childhood. Upon which He said
to St. Agnes : " Give her all that thou hast."
By that word St. Mechtilde understood that
God has conferred upon the Saints the privilege
of being able to bestow all that His grace has
worked in them upon those who love them,
who thank Him, in their name, and delight in
the gifts He has bestowed on them. St. Agnes,
having done as Our Lord desired, Mechtilde
was filled with ineffable joy, and asked the
Bueen of Virgins to give thanks for her to her
ivine Son. Mary, complying with her request,
gave her a share of all her riches, so, with them
and the gifts of Agnes, she loved, honoured, and
fully glorified God, for the past and for the
present.
1 82 Love, Peace, and Joy
0 admirabile commercium ! — Oh, most
precious friendship with the Saints ! We give
them our praises, our thanksgivings, our love>
and they, in return, make us participators in
all the gifts which God has so lavishly bestowed
upon them for His glory. By them we are able
to offer tributes of heavenly worship truly holy,
and worthy of Him ; for " what we can do by
our friends we can do, as it were, ourselves "; * and
God receives the worship which is offered in
our name by the Saints, as if we offered it
ourselves.
CONCLUSION — The Labourers of the Eleventh
Hour. — We are the idle labourers of the eleventh
hour. Idle or negligent until now, and still
very feeble, and very slothful in our humble
work ; but the Heart of Jesus, simply because
He is good, wishes to place us (without any merit
on our part) on an equality with the labourers
of the preceding hours, both with regard to the
fruits of salvation and the recompense. The
Saints who have gone before us, will eternally
glorify His mercy and liberality in this : Pares
illos nobis fecisti — Thou hast made them like
to us. By what means will He accomplish
this ? Friendship renders men equal : " Amicitia
pares invenit autfacit." His Heart, which gives
all, will itself provide these sentiments of
affection. It will beat in us, to make us love
the Saints and gain their love, and for ever will
it beat in the heart of the Saints, and cause
them to love us with the most tender affection.
Thus, in the Heart of Jesus we shall be linked
in close friendship with them, and this union,
by an exchange of goods, will render us their
* " Quod possumus per amicos, pev nos aliquo modo
possumus " (Principle of St. Thomas).
Twenty-Seventh Day 183
equal, and they will eternally praise and thank
God for this : " Pares illos nobisfecisti !"
The Companions of the Eucharistic Soul. — Let
us lose none of the precious resources which
Our Lord offers to us in this friendship with
the Saints. According as the different festivals
come round, and bring us into contact, as it were,
with the Saints, let us endeavour to invoke
and honour them by the Heart of Jesus, who
wishes to be the organ of our worship and our
veneration. Let us seek their friendship, con
tract a bond of union with them in that Sacred
Heart, and take advantage of the rich capital
of their merits (in which we become partners),
in order to glorify God and draw down fresh
graces on the Church. Let each day at the foot
of the altar be thus a new festival whereon to
rejoice Jesus in the company of one of His elect.
It is above all by Holy Communion that the
Heart of Jesus unites us in friendship with His
Saints. We see this by the example of St. Ger
trude, and how it is the natural result of the
Eucharistic Sacrament, which is " the Sacrament
of ecclesiastical unity " — Sacr amentum unitatis
ecclesiastics (St. Thomas). Therefore it is the
eucharistic soul above all whom He desires to
see enter into this supernatural alliance, this
union so full of strength, so replete with
consolation.
Oh, eucharistic soul, how fair is thy portion !
Enter into the joy of thy Lord. Serve Him
with gladness ; for the Saints in Heaven asso
ciate thee to their worship of perpetual jubila
tion. Thy solitude will be peopled with their
celestial choirs ; thy desert covered with the
mystical flowers which bloom in the midst of
their various orders. Thou canst offer to thy
184 Love, Peace, and Joy
Boloved the glory of Lebanon, by the clouds of
incense given thee in their prayers ; surround
the Tabernacle with the beauty of Carmel, by
Ihe variety of their merits which will charm the
eyes of the Divine Prisoner ; and greet His ears
with celestial music, in uniting thy voice to
their songs of praise. Be grateful for the love
and wisdom of the eucharistic God. He wishes
to multiply the associates of thy zeal, the
ministers of thy worship, in order that thou
mayst have nothing to envy in those souls most
enriched by active labours in the service of
God, and that thou mayst attach thyself more
and more to the portion His tender love has
chosen for thee, the better part, which is, as we
have seen, a heaven upon earth, and will never
be taken from thee.
TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY
MY YOKE IS SWEET AND MY BURDEN
LIGHT
THESE encouraging words of the Gospel
seem fully realized in the devotion of the
Sacred Heart, such as St. Gertrude inculcates it
to us by her example and her writings, such,
in fine, as Our Lord wishes to bestow it on His
friends in the present century.
Let us yield to the attractions of His love, and
try to taste the sweetness of that yoke in the
Heart of the Saviour: Gustate etvidele—" Taste
and see." It will win us to His service, attach
us more and more to Him, and soothe all our
difficulties. Let us taste it ourselves, and, as
much as possible win others by its attractions.
Let our final practical conclusion be that word
from the same Gospel which may be also referred
to this devotion : " Venite ad me omnes " — Come
ye all to the Heart of Jesus (Matt. xi. 28).
i. In this Gospel, which may truly be called
that of the Sacred Heart, all seems arranged to
draw us, gain us, encourage, console, and
attach us for ever.
Our Lord first opens His Heart to those who
are in sorrow, and who bear the weight of
tribulation : " Venite ad me omnes qui labor atis
et onerati estis et ego reficiam vos" — Come to
185
1 86 Love, Peace, and Joy
Me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and
I will refresh you (Matt. xi. 28). Come, fear
not, I am your Saviour, your friend. I open
to you My Heart, so meek and humble. There
is nothing in Me that can affright you. I have
come to serve you, to be your victim, to expend
myself entirely for your welfare. I will bear all
the trouble and leave you the consolation. Cast
away the yoke of the world, which you have borne
till now with so much toil and weariness. Lay
down the burden of your sins, and in exchange
take up my sweet and easy yoke, and in verity,
I tell you, you will find rest for your souls,
happiness in my service, and my loving Heart
will ever be open to you as a fountain of peace
and consolation."
Such, it seems to us, is devotion to the Sacred
Heart according to the Gospel. Divine Provi
dence has willed to reserve its full manifestation
to our days, so rife with sin and suffering, and
to make especial use of St. Gertrude, in order
to disclose to us the full realization of His Divine
promises.
2. Truly everything in her life, as well as in
her writings, speaks of peace and consolation.
Throughout may be seen light, grace, sweetness,
and joy, though with a mixture of shadow no
doubt, for that is needed in every picture.
Her life is one of prayer, love, confidence, and
abandonment, rather than one of labour and
suffering. If we would know her particular
characteristic among the other Saints, we find
it, not in a multiplicity of trials, extraordinary
practices of virtue, great works undertaken, or
severe penances accomplished ; but in peaceful
abandonment to the tenderness of Jesus, faithful
acceptation of His yoke (bearing it ever with
Twenty-Eighth Day 187
sweetness), and in constant union with His
meek and humble Heart, ever serving the " Good
Master " in love, in peace, and in joy. This
is what Our Lord offers to us also. He has
chosen this Saint to teach it, to instil it into our
hearts, to show it by her example ; and it is
especially in these times of languor and coldness,
that He makes this consoling offer, which alone
can re-enkindle our warmth, and strengthen
our weakness.
Now, as the end of time approaches, He says
to us what He once announced by the beloved
Apostle of His Sacred Heart : " Let him who
thirsts for happiness, grace, and peace, come to
My Divine Heart, their source, and draw from
it 'gratis' whatsoever he will" — Absque, ulla
commutatione* (Is. Iv. i). " My merciful Heart,
which desires before the end of time to glorify
itself by a supreme manifestation, and to love
men to the utmost bounds of affection, has arranged
all for this end.
" Let these languid souls only come to Me, confide
in My goodness, and abandon themselves to My
love. Let them be at rest in the meekness of My
Heart, unite themselves to My humility and
obedience, and they will no longer feel the weight
of My yoke through the abundant consolation with
which I will favour them.\ Come, then, without
fear or delay, and abandon yourselves lovingly and
for ever unto Me."
May we all hear this appeal of the Heart of
* Because whatever I ask from him that is painful
to Nature is nothng in comparison to the abundance
of peace which I will pour into his soul, for " if a man
should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall
despise it as nothing " (Cant. viii. 7).
f " Computrescet jugum a facie olei."
i88 Love, Peace, and Joy
Jesus. Come, poor souls, who shrink from the
Cross, from combat from renunciation. Come
ye to Him, and be enlightened. " A ccedite ad eum
etilluminamini" (Ps. xxxiii. v). The demon of
sadness or of discouragement has deceived you
till now : " Come and see " — Venite et videte
(John i. 39). The Heart of Jesus, that source
of peace, courage, confidence, and joy, opens
to receive you. Fear not. Fly to this proffered
asylum, where you will be free from alarm.
Plunge into this fountain, where you will find
all that your hearts desire. Yes, trust to this
infinite goodness, abandon yourselves to this
infinite tenderness, and you will taste and see —
will see that interior troubles have given way
to peace ; that cruel sufferings are alleviated ;
discouraging oppositions have marvellously
tended to the success of your undertakings ;
that the infirmities which sapped your courage
have become light and acceptable and the
sources of many graces ; that this practice of
mortification from which you shrank, turns to
the good of both soul and body ; and that all
those trials in which the demon brought forward
the Cross, while hiding its secret unction, have
changed into sweet and heavenly consolations.
Taste and see ! confidence and abandonment !
The Heart of Jesus offers you relief from the
sufferings which would affright you ; peace and
joy of heart ; an abundance of grace which will
encourage you in proportion to the confidence
and generosity of your abandonment.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. — i. Let us cultivate
more and more devotion to the Sacred Heart.
2. For this let us make use of the example, the
writings, and the intercession of St. Gertrude.
3, Let us endeavour to propagate these
Twenty-Eighth Day 189
writings as much as we are able, as the remedy
and help prepared by the mercy of God for
these later times.*
* On many occasions we have had experience that
the writings of St. Gertrude maybe placed hi the hands
of all, even of people of the world, though under
different forms. Le Coeur de Sainte Gertrude " and
"L'Annee de Sainte Gertrude," two books taken from
the " Insinuations," by the Rev. P. Cross, might be
recommended to those who would be likely to take
alarm at too mystical a language. They have already
done much good even to seculars.
We have also the " Prayers of St. Gertrude " and the
"Exercises of Gertrude," edited in French by Dom
Gueranger, and now translated into English.
M. 1'Abbe Lagrelette, of Bar-le-Duc, who must not
be forgotten when there is question of St. Gertrude,
has had a beautiful chapel erected in her honour, and
has edited prayers to her in leaflets and pictures, which
for many years he has widely circulated, and which
have much contributed to extend her honour. A
notice, published from time to time, records the
miracles wrought by her intercession, not only in
France, but in all countries of the world, even in
America, where the prayers and pictures of M. 1'Abbe
Lagrelette have propagated love of St. Gertrude, and
of the Sacred Heart.
TWENTY-NINTH DAY
OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART
ONE of the last manifestations of the mercies
of the Heart of Jesus, and an especial
encouragement given to us in the present trying
times, seems to be " Our Lady of the Sacred
Heart," the sweetest, most merciful Hope of
the despairing.
Far from turning away from our subject, we
shall add to it a requisite completion by ter
minating our work with some words on " Our
Lady of the Sacred Heart."
Continuing to follow our Saint as guide, we
will simply put forward a few encouraging
thoughts which seem to us very likely to facili
tate the realization of our dearest hopes.
Pious reader, you, who have followed us
throughout, what is your most earnest desire ?
To honour the Hearts of Jesus and Mary His
Mother ; to work for the conversion of poor
sinners ; to co-operate according to your means
in the work of reparation ? Well, you may
attain all these ends in the surest, sweetest way,
(suaviter et fortiter], by Our Lady of the Sacred
Heart. She will lead you with a mother's
gentle hand. You will see and feel by a happy
experience that, in abandoning yourself to her
guidance, you will do more for the glory of God,
190
Twenty-Ninth Day 191
your own sanctification, and the salvation of
others, than by any other means.
OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART AND
THE WORSHIP OF MARY. — By devotion to Our
Lady under this title, we fulfil towards her, and
in the most excellent way, the four aims of
religious worship.
We honour and thank her by the Heart of
Jesus, which gives itself to be, as it were, the
organ of our universal worship ; we implore
her graces and our pardon by the titles dearest
to her heart ; for in invoking her as Sovereign
of the Heart of Jesus, we invoke her as the Queen
of love and of mercy, who cannot resist exer
cising towards us this twofold and glorious
prerogative.
In the first place, what greater praise or more
touching thanks could we offer to Mary than
those of the Heart of Jesus, in which we unite
to honour her ?
On one of Our Lady's festivals, St. Gertrude
chanted the office of this glorious Queen, in
uniting herself to the Heart of Jesus. As she
did so, she saw Him draw to that Divine Heart,
the praises expressed in the psalms, and thence
they flowed, like an impetuous current, towards
the Blessed Virgin, His Mother.
At the antiphon, " Thou art all fair," Ger
trude endeavoured to sing these sweet words
by the very Heart of Jesus, in memory of the
loving appellations and childlike praises He
must have bestowed upon her in similar terms,
during His mortal life. At this, stars of great
brilliancy, symbolizing these praises, issued from
the Heart of Jesus, and shed their lustre on
Our Lady. Some fell here and there upon the
ground, and were collected by the citizens of
192 Love, Peace, and Joy
Heaven, who presented them to Jesus with
signs of inexpressible joy and admiration.
Gertrude understood from this that the praises
given to Our Lady by the Heart of Jesus are
a source of unutterable glory and happiness to
the Saints.
Meanwhile the Angels, uniting their voices
to those of Gertrude's Sisters, asked : " Qua est
ista " — Who is she ? — and Jesus, with a high
and powerful voice, answered : (< The most
beautiful of the daughters of Jerusalem." This
voice, issued from the Divine harp of His Sacred
Heart, whose chords seemed touched by the
Holy Spirit, and thus enabled to celebrate
worthily the eminent glories of the Virgin
Mother.
Enraptured, as it were, with delight, Mary
bent over the Heart of her most loving Son,
and appeared to find therein the quiet of a
peaceful sleep ; but as the strophe, " 0 Gloriosa
Domina," was sung, she raised herself, as if
about to respond to her daughters' call, and
extended her hand over them in token of
motherly protection, and as if to assure them
that, having all power over her Son's Heart,
she would efficaciously guard them from their
enemies.*
Following the example of St. Gertrude, let
us, with profound humility and filial confidence,
honour Mary, who is our Mother as well as
being the Mother of Jesus. By the Heart of
her Divine Son, let us thank her, invoke her,
and implore her forgiveness. Whatever we
do by her will be perfect. The more deeply
we feel our unworthiness and inability to pay
honour to this great Queen, the more firmly
* "L'Annee de Sainte Gertrude," pp. 220, 221.
Twenty-Ninth Day 193
ought we to believe that in Jesus we can do
all things. Let us offer to Mary His Sacred
Heart. She will welcome our gift, and nothing
will be wanting to our homage.
We will cite another example of our dear
Saint, which will prove that Mary received what
Gertrude offered her by the Heart of Jesus,
more favourably than all her other gifts. It
was the Festival of the Nativity. Gertrude,
detained in bed by infirmity, saw the Angels
of her Sisters offer their chants of devotion to
the Queen of Heaven, under the form of green
branches.
" Alas ! my sweet Mother!'' she exclaimed;
" why am I thus unworthy to unite my voice to
those of my Sisters?" "Do not be troubled,"
answered Our Lady ; " thy good will compensates
for these apparent losses. No outward devotion, in
fact, can please me so much as the intention which
I see in thy heart, of praising me (according to
thy custom], by the most tender Heart of my Son.
As a proof of this, I will myself offer, in thy name,
to the Blessed Trinity a branch, covered with
flowers and fruits, and the three Divine Persons
will accept it with delight"
Jesus offers to us also His Divine Heart,
that we may be able to honour Mary. He
ardently desires that we should make use of it
in this way ; and in doing so we give Him joy,
and win from Him the testimony of His grati
tude. Listen again. During the same office,
Gertrude sang in spirit those words of the anti-
phon, " 0 quam pulchra es " — How beautiful thou
art — addressing them to Mary by the very
Heart of Jesus, and He by a gracious inclina
tion, manifested to her His pleasure at this
devotion, and added : " When the hour has
13
194 Love, Peace, and Joy
come, I will return to thee the glory which now,
in My Name, thou dost give to my beloved
Mother."
Oh tenderness ! oh joy ! oh love ! I would fain
lose myself in the love of the Hearts of Jesus
and Mary ! Oh, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,
take my heart, unite it with that of Jesus,
watch over it, that it may ever be a delight to
thy maternal heart !
THIRTIETH DAY
OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART— Continued
i. /^~\UR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART AND
\^J DEVOTION TO THE HEART OF JESUS. —
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart has the key to it.
She opens it at her will, to let us enter and drink
at the very fountains of grace. " Cor Regis in
manu Dotnince." The Heart of the King (we
may translate in the spirit of St. Bonaventure)
is in the hands of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
She can incline it in any direction, win its
favours and insure its mercies for whom she
likes. Have no fear of attributing to Mary too
great a power over the Heart of her Son. Be
yond all thought or expression, she is Queen
of this Heart ; for thus does Jesus love to
honour His Mother.
The Church, to whom God confides His
secrets, being wishful to make us understand
more fully the power which Jesus has given
to Mary, fears not, even in her liturgy, to make
use of expressions which may seem exaggerated.
Thus she allows us to sing : " Tun per precata
dulcissima, nobis concedas veniain per scecula "
— By thy prayers, so powerful over the Heart of
Jesus, GRANT' us for ever, 0 Mary, the pardon of
our sins. We ought to say, it would seem,
195
196 Love, Peace, and Joy
obtain for us, but such is the immense power of
Mary's intercession that she appears to grant
what in reality she obtains.
In the same spirit does the Church address
herself directly to Mary in soliciting graces
which God alone can bestow. She sings :
" Solve vincla reis prefer lumen ccecis " — The
captive's fetters break, pour light upon the blind.
Let us, then, imbibe the spirit of the Church,
for the Church has the Spirit of God. On this
immovable foundation, the rock itself, is based
the devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.*
The greatest grace this good and all powerful
Mother can obtain for us — that which results
from the very title of " Our Lady of the Sacred
Heart " — is devotion to that Sacred Heart of
Jesus. Oh, let us earnestly beg her to obtain it
for us ! It is through her intercession that man
has ever received this gift, from St. John the
Evangelist, St. Gertrude, the Blessed Margaret
Mary, down to our own day. St. John, in fact,
took Mary for his mother first, and by her
received the gift of Jesus' Sacred Heart ; and
if he represented all Christians in general, let us
remember that he represented, in an especial
manner, the friends of the Sacred Heart. There
fore it is through Mary, through Our Lady of
the Sacred Heart, that we shall obtain devotion
to the Heart of her Divine Son.
2. OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART AND
POOR SINNERS. — Those whose conversion we
desire to obtain : with regard to them, even the
most despairing, Mary will be our sweetest,
surest hope ; will enable us to draw grace and
mercy for them from the Heart of Jesus ; and,
in sustaining, with a mother's love, our zeal
* See " L'Annee de Sainte Gertrude."
Thirtieth Day 197
for their conversion, will make us persevere until
we have obtained it ; for a mother's heart never
wearies nor becomes discouraged, and generally
triumphs at last over the hardest hearts.
Oh, how gladly will she hear you remind her
with filial confidence of those words of St. Ger
trude, when imploring from her some extra
ordinary grace of mercy : " Oh, Mother of good
ness, if God has given ihee a Son whose Heart is
the very fountain of mercy, is it not in order that
thou mayest pour those waters of grace on all the
miserable, and furnish thy inexhaustible charity
with a means of hiding from Divine justice the
multitude of our sins and failures." This tender
Mother will at once look at you, as she looked
at St. Gertrude, with a face beaming with grace
and mercy. You will feel that her heart is
moved, and that Jesus also, touched by her
emotion, takes compassion on those whose
pardon you implore.
Oh, if we only knew how deeply Mary feels the
miseries of our souls ! how ardently she desires
the salvation of those poor sinners for whom she
has sacrificed her Son Jesus ! One day, when
St. Gertrude reminded her of this by those
words of the liturgy, " By Thee has our salva
tion come," the Mother of mercy seemed so
deeply touched that, quite overcome, as it were,
she leaned her head on the Heart of Jesus, and,
multiplying her supplications and the mani
festations of her love, she conjured Him to pour
the graces of redemption abundantly on souls.
Oh, how could the Heart of Jesus refuse such
a request ? Is not the love He has for His
Mother incomparably greater than His hatred
for our sins ?
One day, when our Saint addressed Our Lady
1:98 Line, IVacc, and Joy
I yei ol tho liiurcy. " //>$•!
intactJjt pro p*cc*ti$ fios/ris," she saw Mary
•••. and fesus, \\ ith .1
. .\\vi i\l hoi W \ . ':.' .-.'.'.^
•
' .
t erven tioii fov
\ IM -ion \\ r
•v.ijioincnt to our seal.
^.u-rod Heart as Hope
desi\urin£. Lot us Knv to remind her
redemotress. Invokiiut her with cor
ercy.
loart
i the
la noo
Thirtieth Day 199
the Sacred Heart. She will, as a tender mother,
do for you as she did for St. Gertrude. First
hide under the mantle of her mercy your own
sins and negligences, and then, according as you
offer her your works of reparation, " she will
turn towards the Heart of her Divine Son," and,
with a maternal kiss, will offer them to Him,
and by uniting them to her own works of
atonement will confer upon them an incom
parable value.
Perchance in this life of reparation, to which
you are drawn by grace, you may fear your
weakness and inconstancy, or shrink from
drawing upon yourself trials beyond your
strength. Offer yourself to Our Lady of the
Sacred Heart, abandon yourself to her maternal
guidance, and you will no longer fear. She will
give you to imbibe, in the Heart of Jesus, that
love which imparts strength. She will permit
only such trials as would be for your good to
assail you ; more trifling, perhaps, than those
which, without this offering, you might have
had to endure, and accompanied certainly by a
greater grace and sweeter consolation. She will
draw from the treasures of the Heart of Jesus
wherewith to supply for what is wanting to your
little efforts, and you will see what so many
before you have seen, that the path of the
soul devoted to reparation is direct and lumin
ous when she leans on Mary's hand, and that it
is strewed with graces for yourself and for others.
Have boundless confidence, then, in this
tender Mother, and if you shrink from offering
yourselves as victims of the Heart of Jesus, be
victims of " Our Lady of that Sacred Heart."
LITANY OF THE SACRED HEART
OF JESUS
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
God the Holy Ghost,
Holy Trinity, One God,
Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father,
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Ghost in
the womb of the Virgin Mary,
Heart of Jesus, hypostatically united to the
Word of God,
Heart of Jesus, Infinite in majesty,
Heart of Jesus, Holy Temple of God,
Heart of Jesus, Tabernacle of the Most High,
Heart of Jesus, House of God, and Gate of
Heaven,
Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity,
Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love,
Heart of Jesus, full of kindness and love,
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues,
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise,
Heart of Jesus, King and centre of all hearts,
Heart of Jesus, wherein are all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge,
Heart of Jesus, wherein abides the fulness of
the Godhead,
Heart of Jesus, in Which the Father was well
pleased,
202 Love, Peace, and Joy
Heart of Jesus, of Whose fulness we have all \
received,
Heart of Jesus, desire of the eternal hills,
Heart of Jesus, patient and abounding in
mercy,
Heart of Jesus, rich unto all that call upon
Thee,
Heart of
Heart of
Heart of
Heart of
esus, Source of life and holiness,
"esus, Atonement for our iniquities,
esus, glutted with reproaches,
esus, bruised for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, made obedient unto death,
Heart of Jesus, pierced by the lance,
Heart of Jesus, Source of all consolation,
Heart of Jesus, our Life and Resurrection,
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation,
Heart of Jesus, Victim of sin,
Heart of Jesus, Salvation of all who trust in
Thee,
Heart of Jesus, Hope of all who die in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, delight of all the Saints,
Lamb of God, Who takes t away the sins of
the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of
the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the
world,
Have mercy on us.
V. Jesus, meek and humble of Heart,
R. Make our hearts like unto Thy Heart.
PRAYER.
Almighty and Everlasting God, look upon the
Heart of Thy well-beloved Son, and upon the
praise and satisfaction which He rendered to Thee
on behalf of sinners ; and, being thus appeased,
grant them the pardon which they seek from Thy
mercy, in the name of the self-same Jesus Christ,
Litany of the Sacred Heart 203
Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in
the unity of the Holy Ghost, God for ever and
ever. Amen.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, teach me to be meek
and humble of heart like Thee. Teach me perfect
self-forgetfulness. Teach me what I must do to
arrive at the purity of Thy love. Thou knowest
my weakness, but Thou canst do all. Accomplish
in me Thy Holy Will. Consume me by the fire of
Thy love. Is not that, O Jesus, the office and desire
of Thy Heart ? and dost not Thou deserve that
there should be souls who know and love Thee
whilst there are so many who outrage and offend
Thee?
O Jesu vivens in Maria, veni et vive in famulis
tuis ! In spiritu sanctitatis tuse ; in veritate
virtutum tuarum ; in perfectione viarum tuarum ;
in communione mysteriorum tuorum ; dominare
omni adversae potestati, in Spiritu tuo ad gloriam
Patris. Amen. — M. OLIER. (300 days of in
dulgence.)
Printed in England.
PREVCT, Andre. BQT
Love, peace and joy. 2591
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